


Let the Light In

by lydslibrary



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Action & Romance, Adventure & Romance, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst and Romance, Best Friends, Dean Winchester In Love, Demon Dean Winchester, Developing Friendships, Drama & Romance, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Falling In Love, Family Fluff, Fate & Destiny, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Love, Love Triangles, Male-Female Friendship, Mark of Cain Dean, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Protective Dean Winchester, Relationship(s), Romance, Romantic Soulmates, Slow Romance, Soulmates, True Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:21:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 31,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26228626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lydslibrary/pseuds/lydslibrary
Summary: Tess Sands has spent the last eight years searching for the remaining Men of Letters bunker that her father has told her so much about. When she finally finds it, she discovers that the Winchester brothers are already living there. In almost no time, Tess joins Team Free Will... until she finds out that for her, will has never been free.
Relationships: Dean Winchester/Original Female Character(s), Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester
Comments: 11
Kudos: 38





	1. Chapter 1

* * *

The rain was coming down steadily. The thick droplets landed soundly on the windshield of her yellow 1974 Volkswagen Beetle as she tore down the highway, the sound reminding her of the plastic pellets of her favorite childhood toy — the BB gun her dad had bought her — hitting a solid target. She turned her car stereo up as one of her favorite songs, _Jack & Diane _by John Mellencamp, came on her playlist. Her car may have been old but she made sure to have an aux cord installed — it was much easier to store her vast collection of music in her phone than it was to store it in her car on a million different CDs. Besides, her job demanded any extra storage space be reserved for equipment. It was midday, around 3:00 PM. Although it was pouring, the sun remained shining through the clouds, just enough to cast a faint rainbow overhead. _A rainbow is a promise from God_ , she envisioned her aunt saying to her. She heard it constantly when she was a little girl. _Oh, Aunt Meredith, if only you knew that God isn’t one to keep promises — or make them_ , she thought to herself solemnly, readjusting her grip on the steering wheel. She became lost in her thoughts, only to be snapped out of them by her ringtone blaring over the car speakers. Glancing down at the caller ID, she smiled; it was her brother.

“Hey, good to know you’re not dead,” she greeted sarcastically after she hit the answer button. She hadn’t heard from her brother since he had left on a business trip three days ago.

“Tess, thank God, where are you?” Tess’s brother questioned in a panicked tone.

“Liam? What’s up? Are you okay?”

“Tess, where are you?” Liam repeated. Tess wasn’t quite sure how to answer this question. She knew where she was headed, but she also knew that her overprotective brother would absolutely freak if she told him the truth.

“I’m on a hunt, I’m headed to Kansas,” Tess replied, deciding that this would probably be the safest answer.

“Listen, when’s the last time you were at the house?”

“I left yesterday around 11:00 AM, why?” Tess asked anxiously, wondering what on Earth had happened in that time.

“Well, I just got back from my business trip and... the place is trashed, Tess. I don’t know what on Earth they could have been looking for but, I don’t think they found it,” Liam stuttered, as he examined what remained of the living room that he shared with his sister.

“They? Like demons? Or like robbers?” Tess questioned nervously.

“Oh, demons for sure. It reeks of sulfur in here.”

“Shit,” Tess breathed, glancing over at the little wooden box laying in the passenger’s seat. Maybe she should tell her brother where she was headed. _No, I’ll wait until I get there. No sense in worrying him if I don’t end up finding the place_. “Are you okay?” Tess questioned.

“Yeah, just pissed,” Liam said, as Tess listened to the background noise of her brother making his way through the house. “Oh – oh, GOD DAMMIT!”

“What? What’d they do?” Tess asked.

“My fucking guitar!”

Liam’s electric guitar was probably his most prized possession. “Is it fixable?” Tess winced, anticipating the worst. She heard Liam take a deep breath.

“It fucking better be! Listen, I got to go try and find someone who knows how to fix this. Be careful on your hunt, please. Love you.”

“I will. Good luck with your guitar! Love you,” Tess said before hanging up the phone. She gulped nervously and glanced down at the box again. She knew that it had been what the demons were looking for; the only key to the remaining Men of Letters bunker. This, of course, was where Tess was headed. She had decided to leave her twin brother out of the loop on this because she knew he would be hesitant to have anything to do with it. Liam left the hunter’s life as soon as he could, which for him was at the age of 14 after he begged his dad to ship him off to boarding school. “THIS IS NOT WHAT I WANT FOR MY LIFE!” Liam’s words from that night echoed in Tess’s head. So, their dad obliged, and Liam was off to some prestigious boarding school the following Monday. Their dad even asked Tess if she wanted to join her brother, but she was adamantly against it. Tess, from the moment she could understand the concept of evil, wanted to rid the world of it; and that’s what she had set out to do. Her grandmother was one of the few women in the Men of Letters, and after the Knight of Hell, Abaddon, slaughtered her and the remaining active members in 1958, Tess’s dad became a hunter driven by the sole purpose of avenging his mother. Tess first heard this story at 18-years-old, right after Liam had left for college and she had asked her father why he himself had never gone. So, her dad told her all about that night in 1958, and how after it, at the young age of eight years old, he swore to devote his life to finding the monster that killed his mother. Tess had always found it curious that her grandmother’s body was never found. Since hearing the story of Abaddon, the all-knowing bunker, and what had been left behind there, Tess had made it her mission to find the key, which her dad had explained to her that there was only one of. Seven years of hunting later, and Tess had finally gotten her hands on it, and her excitement to reopen this chamber of secrets was nearly spilling out of her.

A few more hours had passed and the rain had subsided. Tess’s GPS showed that she had 30 minutes remaining of her trip, which would have only taken her a day had her Aunt Meredith not insisted that she stay the night at her house in Deer Creek, Oklahoma, since it was the halfway point between Tess’s home in Marble Falls, Texas and the bunker in Lebanon, Kansas, to which she was headed. Tess was hesitant to oblige at first, her excitement of making it to the bunker getting the best of her, but eventually agreed once her aunt bribed her with a homemade meal; something that Tess hadn’t properly had since her dad passed away three years ago. Tess’s Aunt Meredith was the only part of her mother that she had ever known. Tess’s mom died in a car accident only two months after Tess and Liam were born, and Aunt Meredith began to make monthly visits down to Marble Falls after Tess and her brother’s 8th birthday, when their dad gifted the twins their first BB guns. “I just had to keep checking in on the three of you after that,” Tess heard her Aunt Meredith’s voice say, as she replayed last night’s conversation between the two of them in her head. They were sitting across from each other at Aunt Meredith’s dining room table, drinking tea and enjoying slices of homemade banana bread.

“Oh, Aunt Mare, you know dad didn’t let me use that thing until he had me fully trained with a NERF gun, and I don’t think Liam ever even touched his. Dad did his best, you know,” Tess said, taking a sip of her peppermint tea. Aunt Meredith smiled at her apologetically. She was never the biggest fan of Tess’s father.

“I had my doubts about a lot of things when it came to your father, but his love for you kids was never one of them. I know we butted heads a lot, him and I, but nowadays I miss having him to argue with,” Aunt Meredith said sympathetically, changing the subject from Tess’s dead father to her brother by asking, “How’s Liam? Heard he’s a computer guru now or something like that?”

“Oh, yeah. He’s great, he’s working for some fancy tech company now or something. Still won’t move out of the damn house, something about it not being a “good financial decision”, but he pays all of the bills so I’m not complaining.”

“You’d think that at 26 you’d want to move out of the house that you share with your twin sister, no? Start your own life? Find a girl?” Aunt Meredith wondered out loud, cutting herself and Tess another slice of banana bread. Tess chuckled softly.

“Yeah, well I’m guessing the “I-make-enough-money-to-live-on-my-own-but-still-choose-to-be-roomies-with-my-sister-at-the-age-of-26” type of guy isn’t the most popular among women these days,” Tess teased, earning a chuckle from her aunt.

“And your boyfriend, you still with him?”

“Matt? No… we broke it off about a month ago. Absolute control freak,” Tess explained, twiddling her thumbs. This had been an understatement. Matt and Tess started dating when Tess was 22; they met at the community college that Tess had decided to enroll in just so she could have some kind of degree to fall back on once the hunting life was over for her – back when she thought that the hunting life could one day be over for her. After Tess graduated and had begun searching for the bunker’s key again, Matt started getting really suspicious when she suddenly started traveling out of town every weekend. Tess, of course, couldn’t tell Matt why she was gone so frequently, as she wanted to keep the supernatural world a secret from everyone who had the privilege of not knowing that it existed. Matt began tracking her without telling her, accused her of cheating, and then left after spewing a whole bunch of choice words at Tess that shouldn’t ever come out of anyone’s mouth. Tess, of course, was too absorbed in finding the key to care about his reaction to the situation and shrugged it off as his loss, but deep down she was frightened about what Matt might be capable of. When he got angry, he got really angry. She knew she could take him if she needed to, but she didn’t enjoy beating the asses of humans who weren’t possessed by demons. It was a waste of her time and energy.

“Good choice, then, breaking it off. The controlling ones only get worse over time,” Aunt Meredith said with a comforting smile. “So, lovebug, what on Earth are you going to Kansas for?”

“Oh, just a work thing,” Tess mumbled through a mouthful of banana bread. Aunt Meredith pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows at Tess.

“Why is it that you won’t tell me what it is that you do?” She asked, concern in her voice. Tess looked at her aunt sympathetically, wishing so badly that she could tell her exactly what it is that she did, but she couldn’t. Aunt Meredith knew nothing of how real the evils of this world were, and if she did, she would be entirely against Tess putting herself in danger and then she would blame it all on her father for raising her in the life. Tess eyed her aunt; she was an older woman with long, dark gray hair that came down to her elbows and piercing blue eyes that Tess’s mother had also had, but which Tess failed to inherit. Liam got them instead. A knitted white shawl hugged her aunt around her shoulders; Tess remembered being told once that it used to be her mother’s. “Tess?” Her aunt questioned again.

“I, uh, work for a top-secret government agency?” Tess offered sheepishly as a response to her aunt’s question.

“Girl, I was born at night, not last night. That’s okay though, if you don’t want to tell me then I won’t prod you — I’ll find out someday though,” Meredith teased, winking at her niece.

“If it calms your nerves at all, I’m not a drug dealer or anything,” Tess added with a smile.

“In 3 minutes, the destination will be on your right,” Tess’s GPS said in a robotic voice, interrupting her reliving of last night. A knot began to form in Tess’s stomach as she realized how close she was to what the last eight years had built up to. She was actually going to finally do it. Tess turned down her music as she pulled over on the side of the road next to what seemed to be an underground entrance to an old industrial building made from dilapidated brick and slabs of concrete, that was standing further up on a hill. Tess looked at the set of concrete stairs leading into the ground, a small black metal door at the bottom of them. She put her car in park and grabbed the small wooden box that was lying in the passenger’s seat, along with a flashlight from the glove compartment, almost tripping over herself from excitement as she got out of the car. Tess walked down the stairs slowly, her hands trembling with anticipation as she stopped in front of the door. _Man, I hope this is the right place because it totally looks like a slaughterhouse_ , Tess thought to herself as she placed her flashlight under her underarm and opened the small wooden box. She took the key out with a shaky hand, inserted it into the key hole on the black metal door and turned. _Click._ Tess’s heart was beating out of her chest. She pulled on the heavy door and it screeched open. Tess took the key out of the lock, placed it back in the box, and then placed the box in her jacket pocket. She turned on her flashlight and made her way inside, shutting the door behind her with a loud bang. Tess continued to creep forward, moving her flashlight side to side, looking around the dark hallway. After a few minutes of walking, the darkness let up a little as an outline of light coming from behind a door appeared at the end of the hallway. _Weird_ , she thought, _how is the electricity still running?_ Tess reached the outline and pushed on the door, thankful that it was unlocked. As she pushed it open, the light from the room behind the door made her squint, for she had been driving in the dark for the last few hours and her flashlight had not been providing her that much light. Suddenly, Tess felt two strong arms grab her, and she screamed as she felt something wet splash her in the face. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw that there wasn’t just one man, but two, and the bigger one was holding her tightly against his chest, her back to him, one of his arms wrapped around her shoulders, the other wrapped around her torso and forearms, leaving her absolutely no room to wiggle despite her attempts to reach the gun she had holstered on her hip.

“You’re not a demon. Who are you?” The other man questioned, bringing his face close to Tess’s, his piercing green eyes practically staring into her soul. Tess noticed that he was holding a gun in one hand and holy water in the other, further confirming her suspicion that these two men were fellow hunters. Tess relaxed as much as she could, but the taller man's grip on her was not loosening up in the slightest. 

“My name is Tess Sands," she began, "I’m a legacy. My grandmother was a Man of Letters.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Sands? Like, as in Josie Sands?” The shorter man asked, as he tucked his gun in the back of the waistband of his jeans. Tess nodded, and the green-eyed man looked up at the taller one who still had Tess held tightly against his chest.

“You shouldn’t put your gun in your waistband like that,” Tess said, earning a condescending look from the green-eyed man.

“What?” He asked curtly, clearly a bit annoyed by the fact that the random girl who had just wandered into his home had the audacity to start lecturing him about gun safety.

“I’m just saying, if it goes off when it’s in your pants like that, it’ll –”

“Alright, cut the shit. How’d you know about this place? Are you working for Abaddon?”

Confusion spread across Tess’s face. “Am I working for _Abaddon_? The _Knight of Hell_? What kind of question is that?”

“I don’t know, it makes sense to me. One of her little demon henchmen coming in here, pretending to be her granddaughter in some hot meat suit, thinking that my brother and I would be dumb enough to fall for it.”

Tess couldn’t help but giggle at the absurdity of the statement. “ _What_? First of all, isn’t this place warded against like, the highest supernatural beings? Secondly, what do you mean, “Abaddon’s granddaughter”? And also, you’re not so bad looking yourself,” she said with a wink. Usually Tess would be fighting back like hell in situations like this, but for some reason, she didn’t feel the need to. Somehow, she knew that she wasn’t in any danger; that these were just fellow hunters protecting what they had established as their territory. That is, unless they really believed the ridiculous notion that she was working for Abaddon.

“Flattery will get you nowhere, sweetheart,” the shorter man replied with a smirk, “and the warding’s been having problems lately… a demon could’ve found their way in.”

“You just did the whole holy water thing, though,” Tess pointed out with a cocky smile.

“Yeah, well – I – you could be Abaddon herself!” The man stuttered, and Tess giggled again.

“Does someone want to explain to me why you think I’m Abaddon… or working for her? Abaddon killed my grandmother; I hope she’s as good as dead.”

“Wait… you think… oh, sweetheart. Abaddon didn’t kill your grandmother. Abaddon is _in_ your grandmother.”

“Oh, smooth, Dean,” the taller man said from behind Tess.

“What? She is.”

Tess slipped into a haze for a moment, trying to process what she had been told. The argument that the two men were having became muffled as she thought about how much sense it would make, about how she even suggested the theory herself, when her father told her that her grandmother’s body was never found. He refused to even take it into account; it probably brought him more peace to think that his mother was dead than alive and sharing a body with a demon. Tess snapped out of her thoughts to the sound of the brothers still arguing.

“That’s not the point Dean, what if she’s telling the truth? Information like that is something that you sit someone down for.”

“She’s a big girl, she can handle it, Sammy!”

Tess could feel her blood begin to boil as her patience quickly began to leave her. “Both of you, shut up. What do you mean, Abaddon is _in_ my grandmother?”

The taller man who was called Sammy, which Tess assumed was just a nickname for Sam that his brother had given him – because what grown man goes by Sammy – gave the shorter man, Dean, a warning look. “Oh, what? Do you wanna take her to the library? Make her a nice cup of tea and put on some calming music to help her digest the information? We don’t even know that she’s _human_ , Sam,” Dean said impatiently.

“So, what do you suggest we do then, Dean? Tie her up in the dungeon? Run some tests? And if she’s a hunter?”

“If she’s a hunter then she’ll understand where we’re coming from.”

“Hi, yeah, I’m still here and I can hear you both. So, I know no one asked for my opinion or anything, but I’m going to give it anyway; it’s a specialty of mine,” Tess began sarcastically, causing both the brothers to roll their eyes. Tess was on the verge of snapping, and she could tell because her voice was uncharacteristically calm, yet lined with sarcasm; when Tess’s voice got like this, the people closest to her knew to step away from the conversation – she was about to lose her shit. Tess cleared her throat and continued, “Mr. Douchebag over here is right, I am a big girl and I’d also love to sit down and have a cup of tea while the two of you tell me what you know about my grandmother, because you clearly know more than I do. Also, I’ve restrained from kicking both of your asses thus far, but just know that if either of you try to tie me up, it won’t end well for you two. Now, if someone could please explain to me why a KNIGHT OF HELL IS IN MY GRANDMOTHER, AND HOW SHE FUCKING GOT THERE, THAT WOULD BE GREAT!” Tess roared, letting herself finally snap. Sam tightened his grip on her, scared for a split second that she might break free, but Tess had no intention of doing so. At this point, she just wanted to know what they knew about her grandmother and Abaddon.

“Okay listen, Tess, right?” Sam questioned cautiously, adjusting his grip on her. “We’ll tell you everything we know, but you go first.”

“We mean, who you are, how you knew about this place, how you found it, and how you got in. Go,” Dean commanded. Tess took a deep breath.

“My full name is Teresa Josephine Sands. I’m from Marble Falls, Texas. I have a twin brother named Liam, he’s a software engineer. My dad’s name was William Sands; he raised me in the life. He became a hunter to avenge my grandmother, Josie, after he _thought_ she was killed by Abaddon in the massacre of ’58. He first told me about this bunker about seven years ago, and I’ve been looking for it since. That believable enough for you? Or do I have to get my brother to text me some baby pictures?” Tess asked sarcastically, which probably wasn’t helping her case all that much, but she couldn’t help it. She was pissed, and not only at the fact that she didn’t receive a warm welcome, but also at the fact that she received a welcome at all. She was supposed to be the first one to find this place.

“Dean, c’mon. What more do you need from her?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, Dean, what more do you need from me?” Tess teased. Dean squinted at her disapprovingly and let out a sigh.

“Fine, just… here,” he said, picking up a silver letter opener from the chess table behind him and handing it to Tess, “just, don’t stab me with it, if you can even hold it,” he smirked. Tess rolled her eyes and took the letter opener from his hand, grabbing it as tightly as she could while Sam tightened his grip around her, pressing her arms to her sides.

“Calm down, Hulk. I’m not gonna stab anyone,” Tess croaked, in response to Sam’s tightening grip. “See? Not a shifter,” she stated as she handed the letter opener back to Dean. She craned her neck to look up at Sam the best that she could, although her back was still to his chest so it wasn’t the easiest task. “Can you let go of me now?” The brothers shared a quick look with one another, seeming to communicate telepathically for a moment, and Sam finally let the tight, bear-hug grip that he had on Tess go. Tess stumbled out of his grasp and took a deep breath, only then realizing how hard it had been to breath while she was being held by the giant. “Thanks,” she sighed as she rubbed her biceps, which were actually sore from how tightly Sam had been holding on to her. “Can you tell me about my grandmother now?”

Sam handed Tess a beer as Tess continued listening to Dean’s retelling of what had gone down in their world in the past year or so. Tess thanked Sam and took the beer from his hand, placing the bottle to her lips. She hated beer, but she hadn’t drunk anything in the past six hours or so, and on top of all the information that she just found out, she _needed_ some kind of alcohol. 

“… and we were trying to complete the trials to close the gates of hell and Abaddon was the demon we had on hand. So, we sewed her back together and –”

“You sewed her back together? Like Frankenstein?” Tess interrupted, absolutely horrified at the mental image of Sam and Dean sewing her grandmother’s body parts back together.

“Hell yes, like Frankenstein. And the best part is, it friggin’ worked,” Dean continued.

“Or you could say that was the worst part, because then you _lost_ her,” Sam chimed in, taking a sip of his beer.

“The bitch didn’t have hands, okay? How was I supposed to know that she’d be able to get away?”

“Hey, that’s my grandmother you’re talking about!” Tess teased, chuckling as she downed her beer. The initial tension between the three hunters had pretty much died out once they all started drinking and sharing stories. Sam and Dean had told Tess about how their grandfather time traveled form 1958 and popped out of their motel room closet about a year ago, trying to escape from Abaddon with the same bunker key that Sam and Dean had used to get in. Only, he accidentally let Abaddon through the portal as well, which explained where Josie Sands’ body went and why it was never found at the scene of the massacre. “So, where is she now?” Tess asked nervously, as she remembered that demons did ransack her home only yesterday in search of Tess’s bunker key, and after everything that she had just learned, she was almost certain that they were Abaddon’s.

“Well, last I heard, trying to take over hell… and I like the management hell has now. He doesn’t meddle… much. Anyway, we’re trying to figure out a way to kill the bitch,” Dean said, chugging down the remainder of his fourth beer.

“Do you think,” Tess began cautiously, cursing herself for not remembering the demons earlier, “do you think that Abaddon might still have an interest in the bunker?”

Sam looked at her curiously. “Probably. I mean, “still has an interest” in the sense that it’d be in her best interest to destroy the place. Why do you ask?”

“Well, and don’t be mad at me for not mentioning this earlier, I didn’t think it was relevant until everything I just learned… but, demons tore through my house the other day, and I think they may have been looking for _my_ key,” Tess said, biting her lip nervously as she waited for the brother’s reactions.

“How do you know that’s what they were looking for?” Dean asked, his voice suddenly serious again.

“I don’t know for sure, but they wrecked the house and didn’t take anything. I don’t even know how they found out that I had it. I didn’t even know that it happened until my brother called me while I was on the road this morning. I’m sorry, I would have turned around had I known that there were already people living here… but I thought I was going to the safest place that I, or the key, could possibly be.”

“Do they know what kind of car you drive?” Dean questioned.

“I don’t know what they know. They knew where I lived,” Tess shrugged, suddenly feeling extremely guilty about not mentioning any of this earlier. The thought of Abaddon having any interest in the bunker never crossed her mind; Tess always assumed she had just murdered the Men of Letters for the sake of murdering people who had knowledge on her or monsters of the like.

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s not like we gave you a warm welcome or anything, it would have slipped anyone’s mind,” Sam finally said, as he noticed the guilt that was written all over Tess’s face. “And you’re not wrong, this is the safest place you could be.”

“Didn’t you say that the warding’s been having issues?” Tess asked, slightly comforted by Sam’s words.

“It’s shaky, that’s for sure, but it’s better than no warding at all. We’ll find a way to fix it,” Sam reassured her. “Here’s what’s gonna happen. Dean’s going to take you to your car and show you how to get to the garage. We shouldn’t leave your car out front. And then tomorrow, we’ll make some calls. See if anyone’s heard anything, alright? Don’t beat yourself up, okay?” Sam said sweetly, a soft smile spreading across his face. Tess returned the gesture and nodded, turning her attention towards Dean, who was showing the exact opposite emotion as his brother. “Dean,” Sam warned, his tone of voice changing completely.

“Sammy, can I talk to you?” Dean asked without even glancing in Sam’s direction. Sam sighed and stood up from his chair.

“Sorry,” he mouthed to Tess, and Tess waved her hand as to say “no-big-deal” and watched the two brothers disappear around the corner.

“What?” Sam snapped in a whisper, trying to keep his voice well out of Tess’s ear-shot.

“You got a crush on her or something?” Dean whispered back, his questioned lined with sarcasm.

Sam pursed his lips in annoyance. “Just because I’m nice to someone doesn’t mean I have a crush, Dean. She’s clearly in trouble.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t mean that she’s gotta bring the trouble here!” Dean said in a whisper-yell.

“Will you keep your voice down! She’s got just as much of a right to stay here as we do, Dean. She’s a legacy, too.”

“Well, we didn’t bring a hoard of demons with us when we came, did we?”

“Do you see any demons? She obviously didn’t mean to, she thought she was going to be the first one here,” Sam explained, trying his best to talk some sense into his brother.

“So, what, you’re just going to let her stay now? Just going to invite her to move on in?”

“We do not own this damn bunker, Dean! She has every right to stay here if she wants, I shouldn’t even have to invite her to. Plus, she’s a hunter, and judging by her stories, a damn good one. We could use her help in hunting down Abaddon.”

“Yeah, well, talk is cheap.”

“Okay, so then we put her to the test, see what she can do. Seven years Dean, she’s been searching for this place. Think about it. We didn’t even know about this place; it was practically handed to us. Think about how hard we’d look if we had known about it. It’s not difficult to put yourself in other people’s shoes for a minute or two, you should try it sometime.”

Dean let out a frustrated groan as he realized that his little brother was right. “Fine, but I’m putting an equal treatment rule in place.”

Sam took a deep breath and closed his eyes, pressing his thumb and index finger to his brow bone, exhausted from his brother’s stupidity. “A what?” Sam sighed.

“An equal treatment rule. Means, you’re not gonna treat her any different because she’s a girl. Or, if you do, you treat me like that, too. You feel like making her breakfast one morning? I better get some, too. Whatever you do to her, you gotta do to me. That’s the only way we’re gonna keep any damn normalcy in this place.”

“You are aware that you’re acting like a 12-year-old boy?” Sam asked, quite over his brother’s child-like behavior.

“I mean it, I’m watching you,” Dean whispered, making the classic “I’m-watching-you” hand signal at Sam as he disappeared around the corner and headed back to the library. _Damn, he’s tipsy_ , Sam thought to himself as he shook his head and followed Dean back to where Tess was sitting.

“Alright, so _I’ll_ show you where the garage is,” Sam said, as he made his way into the library, arriving a few seconds after Dean.

“No, I got it,” Dean chimed in happily, shooting Sam a quick glare and mouthing “equal treatment”. Tess looked from one brother to the other, curious as to what conversation they could have possibly had in the 2-minute time span that they were gone that changed Dean’s mood around so quickly. She looked at Sam, who was standing behind Dean and mouthing “alcohol”. Tess nodded her head in understanding.

“Alright, but I’m driving,” Tess said, standing up from her seat at the table. “Is he okay to give directions?” She asked Sam as she passed him, Dean already climbing the staircase that lead to the bunker’s exit.

“Oh, yeah, you’d have to be absolutely shit-faced to mess up the directions. It’s a straight shot from where you’re parked and he’s just a little tipsy. Have fun,” Sam said with a sarcastic smile, and Tess rolled her eyes as she caught up to Dean and followed him out of the bunker.


	3. Chapter Three

“That’s your car?” Dean asked Tess condescendingly as the two of them reached her little Volkswagen Beetle that was parked out in front of the bunker’s main entrance.

“Do you have a problem with it?” Tess asked with a warning tone; any insult to her car was an insult to her.

“No, no,” Dean replied unconvincingly as he bit back a smile, “What year is it?”

“’74. And she’s my pride and joy, before you say anything else.”

“She’s cute,” Dean teased, and Tess rolled her eyes.

“She _is_ cute, thank you very much,” Tess said, as she walked around to the driver’s side door and got behind the wheel. Tess inherited her little Beetle from her Aunt Meredith, who said she “couldn’t put up with that piece of junk anymore”. Tess and her dad spent her senior year of high school fixing it up and by the time she graduated, it was good as new. Tess wasn’t much of a car fanatic – everything she knew she had learned from her dad – but she could fix a tire and she knew how to change the oil, which was more than most.

“This car just screams “I’m a girly girl” to me,” Dean shrugged, as he crawled into the passenger’s side. Tess shot him a mean glare as she started her car.

“And I’m a ‘girly girl’ who can and will kick your ass, thank you very much. You’re very annoying when your tipsy, you know.”

Dean began to protest, but Tess’s radio caught up with her car’s engine, and _Highway to Hell_ came blasting through the speakers, causing both her and Dean to nearly jump out of their seats. Tess quickly pressed the power button and took a second to re-center herself, trying to get her heartrate to go back down.

“Hey, no reason to turn it off!” Dean said, as he reached for the power button, only for his hand to be slapped away by Tess. “What the hell was that for?”

“Were you raised in a barn? Driver always picks the music,” Tess said, as she connected her phone to the car’s aux chord.

“Well, I can’t argue with that one,” Dean admitted. “What the hell is _that_?” He questioned in the most offended tone as he noticed the aux chord.

“Um, an auxiliary cord?” Tess replied, unsure about whether Dean was being serious or not.

“No, I know that. I mean, what the hell’s it doing in a ’74 Volkswagen Beetle?”

“It’s a lot easier to store my music on my phone. I can’t drive around all day hoping that my favorite song comes on the radio and it’s not like I’m going to use cassettes or CDs – they’d take up most of the storage space in here. It’s not a very big car, if you haven’t noticed,” Tess explained, motioning to the car interior around her. Her backseat had about three suitcases taking up most of the seat; Tess had planned to stay at the bunker for a few weeks before returning back home to Marble Falls to collect the rest of her belongings, had she actually ended up deciding to move into the place. It looked as though that plan was dead now, considering that Sam and Dean had already been taking up the residence. She wondered how long they’d let her stay. A few weeks? Months? Sam had said “we’ll make some calls tomorrow” to see if anyone has heard or seen anything about Abaddon’s demons running around, but then what? She spends the night tonight and heads back home after the calls are made? After the demons are found? Tess couldn’t help but be a little upset by the fact that the bunker was already occupied, but she also couldn’t be angry at the brothers if they decided to kick her out after a few days or weeks – “finders keepers” is a rule that plays well into adulthood, right?

“Let me get this straight,” Dean said, snapping Tess out of her thoughts. “You don’t want to use cassette tapes… so, you deface your car?”

Tess rolled her eyes. _Great, he’s a car fanatic._ Tess’s dad said the same thing when she installed the damn thing. “I wouldn’t say that installing an aux cord is _defacing_ it, but –”

“It definitely is,” Dean interrupted. “Anyway, the garage is straight ahead and to the right.”

Tess stepped on the gas slowly, following Dean’s directions as she searched for a song to play on her phone. She settled on _Ramble On_ by Led Zeppelin, to which Dean seemed very excited about.

“You mean to tell me you don’t listen to Taylor Swift or something?” Dean asked, as the song started playing through the car’s speakers and Tess drove slowly down the dark road; it was almost midnight and her car’s headlights were not the brightest, so she was having trouble seeing anything past three feet in front of her.

Tess shot Dean some mean side-eye before responding. “I’ll attribute all your borderline sexist comments to the fact that you’re tipsy, but no, Taylor Swift is not my first choice in music. How do you even know who that is? You don’t look like a teenage girl to me,” Tess teased. Dean rolled his eyes. “And what part of me looks like I’d listen to that new age pop country crap? My dad would come back from the dead just to slap me upside the head if I ever started jamming out to Taylor Swift,” Tess laughed, remembering how her dad hated pretty much any music that was made after 1979.

“It’s this turn right up here,” Dean said, pointing to a barely noticeable turn off the road. “I don’t know I just figured, you look like you’re about, what? 22? 23?”

“Ha! Well, thank you,” Tess began, as she turned onto an even darker road, barely able to make out the entrance to the garage which was a little ways ahead of her, “but I’ll be 27 in November.”

“Wow, I was way off,” Dean chuckled, his voice lined with surprise.

“Yeah, well, at least you shot low. What are you, like 30?” Tess guessed, as she stopped in front of the garage door.

“Just turned 31,” Dean sighed disappointedly. 

“Wow, over the hill, huh?” Tess teased, and Dean gave her an unamused look. “I’m kidding! 31 isn’t that old. It’s 32 that you got to watch out for,” Tess giggled, causing Dean to roll his eyes.

“You know, you’re not as funny as you think you are,” he chuckled.

“Yeah, right back at you,” Tess quipped, biting back a smile as Dean faked being offended. “Anyway, I assume this place didn’t come with a garage door opener installed?” Tess asked sarcastically, changing the subject as she motioned towards the large garage door in front of her.

“Yeah, I wish. The thing is a bitch to open. I’ll do it, you wait here,” Dean sighed, as he got out of the car. Tess’s headlights illuminated Dean as he walked towards the garage door, and Tess leaned forward and rested her chin on her steering wheel as she watched him intently. He stood about six feet tall and he was wearing a tan jacket over a red flannel, blue jeans which almost hid his slightly bow-legged walk, and brown hiking boots. He’d almost be attractive if he wasn’t one of the most childish men Tess had ever met. Dean stopped at the side of the door and fiddled with something that Tess assumed to be a lock or latch of some sort, and then he squatted down and started to lift up. Slowly but surely, the door screeched open. Dean turned around to face Tess and he squinted as he was met with the glare of the headlights. He motioned for her to follow him inside, and she slowly pressed on her gas pedal again. Tess couldn’t help but get distracted at the size of the place as she drove into it; it reminded her of a small, one-level parking garage. On one side, there was a row of vintage motorcycles parked neatly in individual spots separated by half-walls of concrete. On the other side of the garage, there was about 20 parking spots, mostly filled with cars that Tess knew were from the 50’s, so they had probably been left there from the Men of Letters days. She couldn’t help but smile as she thought about her dad and the car fanatic that he was; about how excited he’d have been to see _this_ place. Dean motioned Tess to pull into an empty spot next to a black Chevy Impala, and that’s when Tess really wished that her father could have been here to see all of this. Tess put her car in park and turned off the ignition, scrambling to get out of the Volkswagen as fast as she could so she could look at the Impala.

“No freakin’ way!” Tess said, her voice filled with excitement. “Is this yours?”

“That’s my baby,” Dean beamed, looking at his car with admiration.

“A black ’67 Chevy Impala… this was my dad’s _dream_ car. Man, I wish he could be here to see this,” Tess exclaimed – this car was talked about almost every single day of her childhood.

“Your dad had great taste, then. It was my dad’s, and he passed it on to me,” Dean explained, watching Tess as she admired his car. She was a tiny thing, around five foot four, her wavy dark brown hair fell a little past her shoulders and her dark brown eyes seemed to light up as she stared at the Impala with adoration. She was wearing a black leather jacket with a plain white t-shirt underneath – the neckline stopping about an inch or so above her cleavage, black skinny jeans, and black hiking boots. Had Dean not just been in her car with her, he would have assumed that she rode a motorcycle by the way that she was dressed. Dean licked his lips as he looked her over one more time, and then shook his head as he realized what he was doing. _No. She is off the table. Normalcy. Equal treatment rule,_ Dean reminded himself as he cleared his throat.

“Hey, so, I’ve been meaning to ask,” Tess began, bringing Dean fully back to reality as she made her way over to where he was standing, “how long can I stay? I brought some stuff with me because I thought I’d be coming to an empty bunker, but that obviously didn’t happen… I’d hate to overstay my welcome.” She figured it was best to ask the question outright than sit through an awkward conversation with the brothers whenever they decided that it was time for her to leave.

Dean furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “You’re asking me how long you can stay? I thought you were moving in.”

“What?” Tess asked in disbelief, “I mean, I figured that you guys found the place first, it’s technically yours, I have no right to just move on in. I already feel bad for showing up unannounced in the first place,” Tess chuckled nervously, her right hand moving to rest on her left bicep.

Dean looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath. “Damn you, Sammy,” he sighed quietly, before he turned his attention back to Tess. “You’re a legacy, too. This place is as much yours as it is ours,” Dean said, repeating the words that his brother had said to him thirty minutes earlier. Dean knew that Sam was right, but he also wasn’t quite ready to open the bunker up to other full-time residents yet; he was enjoying having something all to himself and his brother. It was the only consistent home he’d had since he was four.

“Seriously!?” Tess asked, the biggest smile spreading across her face.

“Yeah, we have a few extra rooms, it’s no big deal,” Dean shrugged as he scratched the back of his head.

“Are you sure? Is Sam okay with it?” Tess questioned cautiously, trying to keep her excitement at bay until she got an answer.

“Sam’s the one who made me okay with it,” Dean assured her, although he was definitely not _fully_ okay with it; it was going to take some getting used to.

“Oh my God, really!?” Tess squealed with excitement, immediately making Dean regret his decision to tell her that she could stay. 

“Alright, alright. Could we maybe keep the squealing to a minimum?” Dean asked, but he couldn’t help but chuckle at Tess’s reaction.

“Yes, sorry, I’m good,” Tess said as she cleared her throat and collected herself. “I’ll get my stuff out of my car then.”

Dean nodded and Tess turned on her heels, practically skipping to her car. Dean followed behind her, shaking his head with amusement at this little part of Tess’s personality, which he could tell didn’t come out that often. “Anything I can help take in?” He asked, as he caught up to her. He stood at the car’s bumper as Tess pulled two suitcases and a duffle bag out of the back seat.

“Yeah, that one right there’s pretty heavy, if you don’t mind. I got the rest,” Tess smiled, as she pulled out the last suitcase and shut the door with her foot. Dean nodded and picked up the large duffle bag that Tess had pointed out on the floor.

“Jesus, you weren’t lying. What do you have in here, an entire clothing department?” Dean asked, as he heaved the duffle bag over his shoulder with a grunt.

“Maybe,” Tess shrugged as she took the other two suitcases by their handles, one in each hand.

“Alright, it’s this way,” Dean sighed as he began making his way towards the bunker’s entrance which was located on the back wall of the garage. Tess followed closely behind him, and extra pep in her step from the news that she had just received.

By the time Tess had said goodnight to the bothers and got situated in her new room, it was almost 2 AM. She was laying down on the bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering how she was going to break the news to her brother that she was planning on moving out. She could hear his voice in her head right now: _You’re moving in with two men that you just met? How do you know they’re not serial killers? What are their full names? Birthdays? Social security numbers? You know I’m going to run a full background check. Why didn’t you tell me you were planning on moving while you were on your way there? Blah, blah, blah._ Liam was always very protective over Tess, sometimes too much. Tess could admit that the hypothetical Liam and her head was right; moving in with two men that she just met, spending the night in their territory; it was probably one of the stupider things that she had done in her life. She didn’t even think to ask their last names, now that she thought about it. She’ll get on that tomorrow. However, contrary to Liam’s beliefs, Tess could take care of herself better than her brother ever could. Not that Liam couldn’t kick ass when he needed to – Tess had seen him do it on multiple occasions – but Liam wasn’t a hunter, and you can’t really fight a monster with your fists alone. Tess turned on her side and stared at the gun on her nightstand as her brother’s logic ran through her head; the first logic to run through her head since this morning. She had been so excited to find the bunker, so blinded by her desire to live in it, to learn from it, that any and all safety protocols that she’d usually follow were thrown out the door. Even thinking about how stupid she had been, about how unsafe she might be, it didn’t faze her. For some reason that Tess couldn’t quite put her finger on, Sam and Dean felt familiar. She felt comfortable around them. She trusted them, and she wasn’t sure why. Tess closed her eyes as she drifted off to sleep, a black ’67 Chevy Impala pulling up in her dreams, with a man and two familiar little boys sitting inside of it.


	4. Chapter Four

It was summer and the unforgiving Texas heat was beating down on Tess’s shoulders as she chased a pink soccer ball in her front yard.

“Don’t go too far, lovebug!” She heard her Aunt Meredith call out. Tess turned around to see her aunt sitting on the front porch of Tess’s childhood home; a yellow farmhouse that her dad and mom had built with their own hands, which stood on about an acre of land.

“Tessy! Kick it to me!” She heard a high-pitched voice yell. She turned around to see a small boy standing a few yards away. It was without a doubt her twin brother, Liam, but he was three or four years old instead of 26. Tess looked down at herself, the small legs and hands of a toddler in place of her grown body. Looks like she was her brother’s age as well. She kicked the ball back to her brother with all the force that her little foot could muster; it rolled a few feet in the dying grass in front of her, not quite making it all the way to Liam as she had wanted it to. “You’re not kicking it right!” He shouted, which made Tess ball up her fists at her sides in true toddler-about-to-have-a-tantrum fashion. She was about to yell at Liam before an unfamiliar car came driving down the dirt road that emerged from the many trees surrounding the farmhouse. A black ’67 Chevy Impala. Tess and Liam began following the car as it drove up closer to the house’s front porch and parked a few feet away from the stairs that led up to the front door. Aunt Meredith stood up from her seat on the porch and poked her head into the house.

“Bill!? You got company,” she yelled. Tess’s dad came out a few seconds later and ran down the steps as a tired looking man with dark hair and a beard got out of the Impala.

“John Winchester!” Tess’s dad beamed, spreading his arms wide open for a hug. The man named John chuckled and hugged him back as if they were lifelong friends who hadn’t seen each other in years.

“How are you holding up, Billy?” John asked.

“Oh, you know. Those two keep me on my toes,” Tess’s dad replied, nodding to the twins who were now mindlessly kicking at the soccer ball next to the porch as they tried to make it look like they weren’t listening in on the conversation.

“Oh, don’t I know it,” John said looking to the Impala. Tess looked in the same direction. Two little boys sat in the back seat, one about her age, one who was slightly older, maybe 7 or 8. She couldn’t see them through the windows of the car very well, but even with the age difference and the semi-obstructed view, Tess knew that the two little boys were Sam and Dean.

“Daddy,” Tess began as she ran up to her father who scooped her up in his arms, “Daddy, can we play with them?” Tess pointed to the two boys in the Impala.

“Oh, I don’t know, sugar. John here just stopped by real quick to borrow something from me,” Bill said, smiling at his little girl. Tess looked over at the man who was standing in front of her dad and waved.

“I’m Tess,” she beamed, and the man named John smiled and shook her small hand with his calloused fingers.

“It’s nice to meet you, Tess,” he chuckled.

“Come ‘ere, lovebug,” Aunt Meredith said as she appeared at Bill’s side and reached for Tess who was still in her dad’s arms. Tess reached for her aunt who sat her comfortably on the side of her hip.

“John, this is Meredith. Elena’s sister,” Bill said, introducing the two.

“I can tell. You have her eyes,” John smiled. Aunt Meredith eyed the two men, a cold look on her face.

“C’mon, Tess. Let’s let daddy catch up with his friend,” she said, turning on her heels and making her way up the front porch steps. “Liam, you too, buddy! It’s time to eat!”

Liam stopped kicking around the soccer ball at the promise of food. “Can I have a PB ‘n’ J, pwease?!” He asked, as he caught up to his aunt’s side right as she opened the front door and the three of them disappeared into the house.

* * *

Tess woke up sweating. That was no dream. No way. That was a memory. Tess looked at the alarm clock that was on her bedside table. 6:34 AM. No way in hell was anyone up yet, considering they all went to bed so late last night. Tess knew she wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep, not with the dream – or resurfaced memory – she just had. She had too many questions. How did her dad and this John guy, who she assumed was Sam and Dean’s dad, although she couldn’t be too sure considering Tess didn’t catch a last name from the brothers, know each other? How did John know her _mom_? Why did Aunt Meredith, who was usually so inviting and warm, look at the two men like she wanted absolutely nothing to do with them? With her dad dead and Liam probably only remembering as much as Tess did, if not less considering he never actually talked to the man, the only people who’d maybe be able to answer her questions were her Aunt Meredith, Sam, and Dean. And the jury was still out on her Aunt Meredith – for Tess had always thought that she knew nothing about the monsters of the world and if that was the case, she didn’t want to be the one to break the news, so she was on the fence about asking her. Tess groaned and sat up in her bed, trying to process what any of this could mean. _Oh my God – the archives_ , Tess thought to herself as she got up and quickly brushed her teeth at the sink in her room and headed out the door and down the hall. The brothers gave her a quick tour of the place before they all said goodnight last night, and the archive room was just down the hall and one right turn away from Tess’s new room. The lights in the bunker hallways were dimly lit, giving the place an eerie feeling that Tess was not a huge fan of. The cement floor was cold on her feet as she walked and she wished that she had thought to put socks on, but her curiosity was leading her every decision and she just wanted to know what the connection was between her family and Sam and Dean’s. She reached door 7C and pushed it open, turning on the light switch to her left. The lights flickered and hummed before steadying and Tess got to work looking through old boxes of Men of Letters documents and files. She knew she probably wasn’t going to find anything on her dad or on John Winchester themselves, but she knew that Josie Sands would probably be on one of these files somewhere, and if Josie Sands was here, then there should be a Winchester too, because Tess remembered that Sam and Dean’s grandfather was a Man of Letters. So, unless he was their mom’s dad, there should be a Winchester somewhere in the boxes of documents in this room.

“Uh… what are you doing?”

Tess jumped as she heard Dean’s voice in the doorway behind her and turned around to face him. “Jesus, you scared the shit out of me.” Tess looked at her phone; it was 8:07 AM. She’d been in the archives room for an hour and a half and only managed to get through three or four boxes out of the hundreds that were there. “What’s your last name?” Tess asked Dean as she struggled to take another box down from a higher shelf.

“Winchester, why?”

“Had a dream about your dad,” Tess said nonchalantly as she got down on her knees and began opening a box titled “members”. This _had_ to be it. They had to be in this one.

“You what?” Dean questioned, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

“Yeah. Your dad’s John Winchester?”

“Yeah… how’d you –”

“Told you, I had a dream. Well,” Tess stopped rummaging through the box and sat back on her heels, looking at Dean who was leaning against the doorframe, a black t-shirt on coupled with black pajama pants that had pictures of small hot dogs all over them, “I guess it was more of a memory that I didn’t know I had.”

“Okay… what was the memory then?”

Tess sighed as she stared at the box in front of her and began telling Dean every little detail of her memory that hadn’t yet faded to the back of her mind again.

“Bill Sands?” Dean asked, after Tess had finished. “Listen, I know every hunter my dad worked with. That name doesn’t ring a bell.”

“You don’t remember anything like that?”

“Dude, I had a kind of traumatic childhood, okay? I wouldn’t remember stopping by somewhere specific and staying in the car; my dad stopped by his friend’s places all the time to borrow things for trips and stuff.”

Tess huffed in frustration. “Well, somehow, someway, our families are connected. Your dad knew my mom. He told my aunt Meredith that she had her eyes.”

“What was your mom’s name?”

“Elena.”

“We can look into it Tess, but, I’m telling you – I’ve never heard of an Elena or Bill Sands in my entire life.”

“Is Sam awake?” Tess asked.

“Probably, I think he’s makin’ breakfast, why?”

“Because you are no help,” Tess sighed, as she put the box that she had just started looking through back on a lower shelf so she could come back to it later with ease. She needed to take a break and eat something anyway. “Nice pants, by the way,” she teased as she slid past Dean who was still standing in the doorway. Dean rolled his eyes and turned off the lights, closing the door behind him as he followed Tess through the hallways to the bunker’s kitchen. He wanted to retort with some kind of sarcastic remark, but he was caught off guard by the way Tess’s hips were swaying as she walked, her gray pajama pants accentuating her ass, her – _no, Dean. No._ Dean shook his head clear of what were sure to become dirty thoughts had he not caught himself and followed Tess into the kitchen to see Sam at the stove, making pancakes.

“Good morning,” Sam said as he heard Tess and Dean enter the kitchen behind him.

“Morning,” Tess yawned, making her way straight to the coffee. “Sam,” Tess began, as she poured coffee grounds into a filter, “maybe you can be more help than your brother.”

“Probably, what’s up?”

“He’s not gonna know, Tess,” Dean chimed in as he took a seat at the kitchen’s dining table.

Sam pursed his lips and shot his brother a quick glare before turning his attention back to Tess.

“I had a memory resurface last night, does the name Bill or Elena Sands sound familiar to you?”

Sam paused to think for a moment and flip a pancake before answering, “No, why?”

“They’re my parents and… your dad knew them,” Tess said as she watched the coffee stream into the coffee pot.

“How sure are you that this memory is accurate?”

“Well, considering that John Winchester was in it as well as the Impala and little boy versions of you two and I didn’t even know your last name before going to bed last night, I’d say pretty accurate.”

“What happened in it, exactly?”

Tess spent the next 15 minutes retelling her memory-dream to Sam as the three hunters sat at the table in the kitchen and ate their breakfast. Tess spared no detail and by the time that she was finished, the only thing that remained on everyone’s plates were pools of syrup – or in Sam’s case, sugar-free honey. From this Tess had inferred that he might be one of those health nuts; she had never seen anyone put honey on their pancakes – where she was from, that was something only those “tree-huggin’-hippy” types would do, in the words of her Uncle Rick, who was one of those people who despised vegans and vegetarians for whatever reason. Tess didn’t mind; as long as people weren’t going to try and force their dietary whatever-the-hells on her. She enjoyed her high-fructose, artificial sugar filled syrup; and by the looks of Dean’s plate, so did he.

“Did you check the archives?” Sam asked, after about 30 seconds of silence once Tess had finished her retelling.

“Yeah, been in there since 6:30 this morning. I was thinking, there wouldn’t be anything on my dad, right? But there’d be stuff on my grandmother. And your grandad, too, right?”

“Yeah. Henry Winchester. But, what… you think the connection might start there?” Sam questioned.

“Well, maybe. I mean, your grandad knew Josie Sands, right?”

“Yeah, that’s true. I’ll make sure to ask around when we make those calls today. Someone’s gotta know something about either your dad and ours or about Abaddon.”

“Speaking of Abaddon,” Dean chimed in, “Tess, I assume you want to help us find the bitch, right?”

“I mean, yeah. It’s not like I have anything better to do.”

“Alright, so what skills do you bring to the table?”

“Excuse me?” Tess asked, getting defensive.

“I’m just sayin’, a small little thing like you –”

“Dean, stop talking,” Sam warned as he put his hand out in front of him to silence his brother. “What he means to say, is that we just want to make sure that you’re as good of a hunter as you say you are.” Tess crossed her arms over her chest and raised her eyebrows as to say “excuse me?” again. She wasn’t used to having her hunting abilities questioned, but then again; she had never hunted with anyone but her dad. “Have you ever hunted with anyone before?” Sam continued, ignoring Tess’s offended glare.

“My dad.”

“That’s it? You’ve done all your hunting on your own since he passed?”

Tess nodded.

“Okay, so, we just want to see what you can do. _I’m_ not questioning your abilities as a hunter, I promise. I just want to make sure that if we do end up hunting together, we all have each other’s backs and are skilled enough to do it.”

Tess turned to look at Dean. “I assume _you_ doubt my abilities, then?”

“Sweetheart, look –”

“Don’t call me that,” Tess interrupted, “You listen to me. I have been showered with sexist comments from you since I got here and I’m about done with them. You need to pull your head out of your ass, Dean Winchester. I get it. I don’t have a penis, so I can’t possibly be as strong as you, right? Or as good of a hunter? Is that it? Let me tell you something. I was raised by a hunter in the middle of a small Texas town. I was six years old the first time I shot a gun. By the time I was 10 I had my own. I took karate, taekwondo, and jujitsu – most of those I’d be surprised if you could even _spell_ – for 15 years. So do _not_ underestimate me. Anything you can do, _Dean_ , I can probably do better in a dress and heels, so the next time I hear a misogynistic remark come out of your mouth, I won’t hold myself back,” Tess spat, ending her rant inches away from Dean’s face. Tess got up from her seat at the table and headed out of the kitchen, stopping in the doorway to add, “I’ll be at the shooting range in 10 to show both of you boys up. Sam, thanks for breakfast.”

Tess disappeared around the corner and Dean looked at his brother, wide-eyed. “Sheesh. Women.” Sam tilted his head in disapproval and gave his brother a warning look. “I’m _kidding_! What? I can’t joke around?”

“You’re crushing,” Sam smirked.

“Crushing? What am I, a schoolboy?”

“Do you want me to answer that? Dean, I know how you act when you like a girl.”

“Like her? Like _her_? Tess? No, brother. You’re mistaken,” Dean said defensively, although he knew Sam was right. The way he had just gotten yelled at by her probably fell somewhere within the top three spots on the list of moments in his life where he’d been most turned on. Sam kept staring at his brother, a look on his face that said, “I don’t believe you one bit”. “Okay, one,” Dean began, as he tried to convince his brother that he did not have a crush, “she’s got some kind of God complex going on, _clearly_ , and B, I just met her.”

“Oh, you think – you think _she’s_ the one with the God complex?” Sam snorted.

“Did you not witness what I just witnessed?”

“Oh, I did. I would’ve done the same thing had I been her; you need to hear it sometimes.”

“Hear what?”

“Honestly man, I don’t understand how you pull so many girls.”

Dean rolled his eyes. “I’m gonna go get ready for the day now. Thanks for the breakfast, brother,” he said, getting up from his seat at the table and patting Sam on the shoulder as he passed him on the way out the door.

“Yep. Anytime. Thanks for helping me clean up,” Sam sighed to himself as he stared down at the three plates of sticky substances in front of him.

* * *

Tess had set up the targets and was cleaning her pistol when Dean arrived at the range. He watched her from the door frame as she concentrated on putting her gun back together, admittedly doing it much quicker than he ever could.

“Hey,” Dean said, as he decided to make his presence known.

“Hey,” Tess replied coldly, without looking up from her task.

Dean sighed and walked over to her. He didn’t want to apologize but Sam was right; he could be kind of a dick sometimes when he had an interest in a girl. “I’m sorry for being a dick to you since you got here… it’s, uh… I’ve never been one who likes change and it’s been kind of hard to get used to the idea and everything,” Dean mumbled nervously, reaching up to run his hand through his hair. Tess put her gun down and turned to face him, her hands on her hips. “But, um… I get that’s not your fault and you’re probably pretty bummed out that Sam and I were here first so… anyway, I’m bad at apologizing, but this is me trying.”

Tess smiled softly at him and at the way that he was trying to apologize. The fact that he was attempting to apologize at all was a complete 180 in his character alone. “We’re good, just… know that I’ll kick you in the shins if you ever make a sexist comment again.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Dean smiled. Her forgiveness shouldn’t mean this much to him; there should be no wave of relief that washes over him, but there is. _No, Dean. No_ , he reminded himself as he pushed the happiness that he was feeling back down. He couldn’t let himself fall for her – he wouldn’t.

“Alright, you ready?” Sam asked as he walked through the doorway. The range was narrow, just wide enough to place three targets side-by-side at the end of the room. There was a long concrete counter separating the firing zone from the rest of the range, in front of which Tess and Dean were currently standing, Tess’s .22 pistol assembled and in her hand.

“Born ready,” Tess smiled.

“Okay, headshots only. You got three tries or –,” Dean began.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” Tess said impatiently, brushing Dean off. Dean put his hands up defensively and backed away from her, joining his brother at the back wall of the bunker’s shooting range. Tess took a deep breath and then took her aim. _Bang. Bang. Bang._ All three targets had bullet holes through their heads. She looked over her shoulder at the brothers, who were staring at her, wide-eyed. Tess pulled the trigger again, without taking her eyes off Sam and Dean. _Bang. Bang. Bang._ New bullet holes appeared in the targets right next to the old ones. She placed her gun down on the counter and crossed her arms over her chest. “Any other guns you’d like me to try out? Or was that enough?” She asked sassily. Sam and Dean remained silent, staring at her in disbelief. “I’ll take it I can go on hunts, then,” Tess said, turning around so she could re-holster her gun.

“Sammy?” Dean questioned in a whisper, his eyes traveling from target to target.

“Yeah?”

“I think I’m turned on.”

“Oh, shut up, Dean,” Sam said, as he rolled his eyes. But even Sam couldn’t lie to himself; it was pretty hot. He hated himself for thinking it, but she was undeniably hot. _Fuck_ , Sam thought to himself as he realized that he himself might have a little crush on her.

Tess made her way over to the bewildered brothers, a smirk spread across her face. “What? Am I a better shot than you two like I said I’d be or something?”

Dean chuckled. “You know what? I’m not even going to attempt to lie about it. You are definitely the best shot in this room.”

“Was that… did I just hear Dean Winchester admit that a girl was better than him at something?” Tess teased. Dean looked unamused, but Sam chuckled. “So, what’s the plan then? Are we hunting down the bitch that’s in my grandmother or what?”

* * *

The next few hours were spent making phone calls to fellow hunters in the bunker’s library. Tess hadn’t realized that there were so many other hunters out there. She was surfing the web, trying to find anything that might relate to a death by demon. So far, nothing. Sam sighed as he hung up the phone call that he was on and crossed another name of the list of hunters that he had in front of him.

“No luck?” Tess asked.

“Nope. No one’s heard of your dad and no one’s heard of Abaddon.”

“You call Jody?” Dean asked, looking up from some lore he was reading about the Knights of Hell.

“She’s next,” Sam sighed, as he searched his contact list. He put his phone on speaker and held it out in front of him so everyone could hear. Tess assumed that the brothers were close to this Jody woman; all the other phone calls had been private ones.

The phone rang a few times before a sweet voice answered. “Hi, Sam,” Jody said, a smile evident in her tone.

“Hey Jody, I’m here with Dean and a friend.”

“Hi, Dean. Hi, friend,” she said, still smiling.

“Hey, Jody, how are you?” Dean asked.

“Oh, pretty busy out here, actually. Every other hunt I’ve been on has been a damn demon, and I’m getting’ real sick ‘n’ tired of ‘em. What are my boys calling for?”

Tess looked at the brothers, wide-eyed. Finally, _something_.

Sam chuckled. “Just that, actually. Have any of these demons said anything about Abaddon?”

“Abaddon? The Knight of Hell that you guys told me about?”

“Yeah. Our friend here… um, well, demons ransacked her house and we think they were working for Abaddon.”

“I don’t know Sam, I usually kill ‘em before they can get a word in, y’know?”

“That’s my girl,” Dean chimed in with a proud smile.

“I learned from the best. You guys are welcome to come up here though, see if it’s what you’ve been looking for. It’d be great to see you, and you’re welcome to bring your friend,” Jody said.

“Does tomorrow work for you?” Sam asked.

“I’m always free to see you two, you know that.”

“Alright, thanks Jody, see you soon,” Sam smiled.

“Bye, Jody!” Dean added, before Sam hung up the phone.

“Well, guess we’re going to Sioux Falls tomorrow,” Sam sighed, as he put his phone in his back pocket.

“She seems nice, how do you know her?” Tess inquired.

“Oh, she’s the sheriff in Sioux Falls. Yeah, she uh… she didn’t used to be a hunter, let’s put it that way. But she’s like an aunt to us, I guess you could say. Like the really cool aunt in the family; everyone’s got one, right? Anyway, she keeps our dumbasses in line, that’s for sure,” Dean explained.

“Oh, that’s good. _You_ need it,” Tess teased, pointing at Dean who only rolled his eyes in response. “So, she’s a new hunter, then? You don’t think she’d know anything about my dad?”

“No, probably not. Why don’t you call your aunt? You said she was in your memory too, right?” Sam asked.

Tess sighed. “Yeah, I just… I have always assumed that my Aunt Meredith doesn’t know about all of this,” she said, motioning to the bunker around her as a reference to all the supernatural things of the world. “So, if that’s true, if I’m right and she _doesn’t_ know… and I have to be the one to tell her… I just, I don’t know. I don’t want to take that away from her, y’know? I’m always kind of jealous of the ones who don’t know.”

“Yeah, but… if she _does_ know… that could answer all your questions. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I think Dean and I are just as curious as you are to find out how our families are connected.”

“I’ll think about it, then,” Tess shrugged, before changing the subject. “What’s the weather like in Sioux Falls? I gotta pack.”


	5. Chapter Five

_Hey, just checking in. Haven’t heard from you in a few days and I know you were going on a hunt last time I called. You end up finding anything on the demons? Call me back as soon as you can or I’m sending out a missing person’s report. Just kidding… not really. Anyway, call me. Love you._ Tess sighed as the voicemail from her brother ended; even after listening to it three times she wasn’t sure what she’d say to him once she called him back. She decided to shoot him a text instead, at least letting him know that she was safe and alive.

**T: Hey Liam, I’m fine. Been busy. Please don’t send out a missing person’s report.**

**L: Call me.**

**T: Alright, give me a sec.**

Tess held her phone close to her chest as she laid in her bed. She still hadn’t told him about her plan to move into the bunker with Sam and Dean. Hell, she hadn’t told him about the bunker at all. As far as he knew, she was on a hunt. Tess grabbed the pillow next to her and pressed it over her face to muffle her groan of frustration. She had to call Liam; she knew a text wouldn’t be enough. Tess all but slammed the pillow down back in its original position before she hovered her finger over the call button on her phone, about to press it before she was startled by a knock at her door.

“It’s Sam, can I come in?”

“Jesus,” Tess muttered under her breath as she tried to relax from the near heart-attack that his loud knock had just given her. “Yeah, Sam, come in,” she sighed, sitting up on her bed with her back against the headboard and her legs stretched out in front of her.

“Hey, hope I’m not bothering you,” Sam said as he hesitantly opened the door and came into her room. They both knew that they did not know each other well enough to be giving one another room visits yet.

“No, you’re fine. Saving me from a phone call I don’t want to make, actually. What’s up?”

“I, uh, well… I went back to archives to see if I could maybe find something,” he began. It was then that Tess had noticed his stance; he was holding something behind his back.

“Okay… and did you? Find something?” Tess prompted. She appreciated him looking; Tess hadn’t gone back to the archives room to look through the remaining boxes yet. She had meant to come back to her room and start packing for tomorrow, but she got distracted by Liam’s voicemail.

“I found these, I wasn’t sure if you’d seen them ever or not, but, uh, here,” Sam said, handing her two old and faded photos. They were stained with age and creases, but Tess had seen more than enough photos of this woman to know who it was; her grandmother. She smiled at the top picture as she lightly traced her fingers over the face smiling back at her. Even though Tess had never met her, she felt like she knew her from the countless stories that her dad had told her and pictures that he had showed her as she was growing up. She’d never seen the photo in front of her though; a posed picture, probably taken for the purpose of record keeping. Tess shuffled the photos in her hands, the second photo a group picture. Tess quickly found her grandmother amongst the crowd of men, standing tall and proud to the left of them.

“I haven’t seen these Sam, thank you,” Tess beamed, looking up at the towering man in front of her.

“Yeah, no problem. You kind of look like her, you know,” Sam chuckled, moving his hand to scratch the back of his neck.

Tess smiled, nodding a little. “My dad always said that,” she said longingly, looking back at the two photos. “Shame I never got to meet her. Even worse, when I do, we’re gonna have to kill her.”

“Abaddon isn’t your grandmother, Tess. I would think that by now, your grandmother left that body a long time ago,” Sam reassured her. Tess nodded in understanding.

“Do you know any of the men in this photo?” She asked, slightly turning the group photo so Sam could see.

“Yeah, uh, that,” Sam stated, pointing at a handsome man who was standing right next to Josie Sands, a stoic expression plastered on his face, “is my grandfather. Henry Winchester.”

“I see where you and Dean get your looks,” Tess teased, looking up from the photo. Sam tried to hide the heat that was rising in his cheeks by clearing his throat.

“Thanks,” he replied, accompanied by an awkward smile. _Jesus, Sam. Get it together_ , he reminded himself. He had no business falling for a girl. He wasn’t his brother; he had more important things to worry about. Like figuring out a way to kill Abaddon. “Well, uh, I’ll get out of your hair, then. Let you get to that phone call.”

“Thanks for stopping by,” Tess chuckled, as she watched Sam awkwardly rush out of the room. She laughed to herself as she shook her head; she could always tell when men had a crush on her. Not to be cocky, but in this line of business, it was a common occurrence. Female hunters were far and few between, so she was used to the attention. When it was unwanted, she handled it, but more often than not, it was flattering. Tess found her phone hidden between her sheets and took a deep breath as she finally pressed the call button under Liam’s contact. The line rang once before he answered; he must have been waiting by the phone.

“’Bout time,” he scoffed. Tess rolled her eyes.

“Sorry, got caught up in something. What’s up?”

“Just wanted to check in on you. How’s the hunt going?”

Tess sighed. She didn’t want to lie to him, but she wasn’t quite sure how to tell him the truth. “Got a lead on those demons, actually. Heading up to South Dakota tomorrow,” Tess answered. It wasn’t a lie; it just wasn’t the whole story.

“Where are you staying?” Liam questioned.

_Fuck_. “Uh… you know. Same old, same old.”

“Yeah? Because I can’t seem to find many cheap motels in Lebanon, and from the looks of it, you’re not currently at one. You’re in the middle of BFE,” Liam hissed.

Tess felt her blood begin to boil as she squeezed her phone a little too tightly as it rested against her ear. Being a computer guru and all, Liam liked to check up on Tess in his own little way when she wasn’t responding to him. That way being, he’d hack into her phone and track her without warning. What’s privacy when your overprotective twin brother is an unofficial hacker, right? “Liam, I told you to stop doing that,” Tess seethed.

“What do you expect me to do, Tess? Last I hear from you, you’re going on a hunt. Then you don’t call for a day and a half. What am I supposed to think?”

“Oh, I don’t know? Maybe that I’m busy!?”

“Maybe if you’d just be honest with me from the get-go,” Liam retorted, “I wouldn’t have to break privacy laws to find you.”

“You’re a dick, Liam. I can handle myself.”

“Yeah, yeah, Mrs. Big-and-Tough, I know. I still worry,” he replied, his tone a little softer now. Tess knew that he only did what he did out of love but it didn’t mean it wasn’t still incredibly annoying. “So, where are you then? Or do I have to drive up there and find out for myself?”

Tess took a deep breath. This was it. Time to tell the truth and suffer the consequences. Consequences being Liam’s unavoidable freak-out once he heard how stupid Tess had been over the last 36 hours. “I, uh… do you remember that bunker that dad was always going on about?” Tess asked, easing into the news that she was currently staying in it with two strangers.

“Yeah, vaguely…,” Liam replied in a “you-better-not-be-telling-me-that-that’s-where-you’re-fucking-staying” tone.

“Well, um… I found it.”

Tess heard her brother take a deep, shaky breath on the other end of the phone. She knew he was trying to keep himself from exploding on her. “Okay… so you’re there then?” Liam asked through what Tess could tell were gritted teeth.

“Yes.”

“Was it empty? Did you check all the rooms? Do you understand how fucking dangerous it is to squat in some random run-down supernatural bunker, Tess?”

“Yes, Liam,” Tess sighed. “I’m not squatting. This place is fully functional plus… I’m not alone,” Tess rushed the end of her sentence, hoping Liam didn’t catch it. That way, he could never say that she never told him, only that he didn’t hear her, and that was on him.

“Sorry? Did you say you’re not alone?”

_No such luck_. “Yeah, uh… there were people living here when I got here.”

“How many people?” Liam spat.

“Two.”

“Two women?” Liam asked, assuming that Tess wouldn’t be so stupid as to spend the night in a random bunker in the middle of nowhere with two men who she had just met. Tess’s reply proved him wrong.

“No, um… two other hunters. Just some guys.”

“Are you a fucking IDIOT?” Liam roared.

Tess took a deep breath; just as she predicted. “Liam –”

“Names. Birthdays. Socials if you have ‘em. _Now_ ,” Liam commanded. Tess rolled her eyes.

“Sam and Dean Winchester. That’s the only info I got for you, sorry,” she said curtly.

“Well, go find them and ask, then,” Liam hissed.

“No, Liam! You’re not my parent! You don’t have to look after me like this, it’s fucking ridiculous! They’re nice guys, okay? They check out.”

“They don’t check out unless I say they check out, _Teresa_ ,” he seethed. Tess tried to reduce her blood from a boil to a simmer, but the minute Liam had used her full name she let herself erupt.

“Oh!? So, you want to go there then, _William_? Don’t fucking use my name so condescendingly. YOU’RE NOT DAD, IN CASE YOU FORGOT! I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF!” Tess screamed, as she smashed the end call button and threw her phone on the bed. She took a few deep breaths as she tried to get her heartrate to settle. She loved her brother more than anything, he and her aunt Meredith were all Tess had left of her family, but Christ, the man could learn to let up a little. Even though they were the same age, Liam had always treated her like a child because he was eight minutes older. Eight fucking minutes. As if that gave him any authority over her what-so-ever. Tess groaned in frustration as she replayed the phone call in her head; it literally could not have gone worse. Getting up from her bed, she glanced over at her alarm clock and realized that she had been in her room for a few hours and had not at all accomplished what she came to do in the first place; pack for Sioux Falls. Tess’s stomach growled and she realized that she also had not eaten since that morning, and it was nearing 7:00 PM. Leaving her phone on the bed, not wanting to look at it ever again as she knew it would be blowing up with pissed texts and calls from Liam, she headed down the hall towards the kitchen, hoping that the fridge was stocked with something edible. Between Sam being a health-nut and Dean almost never being seen without a beer in his hand, she’d be surprised if there was anything that she’d find enjoyable to eat at all. Tess rounded the doorframe that led into the kitchen, only to be met by Sam and Dean who were sitting at the table, Dean scarfing down a burger while Sam read some article about deaths in Sioux Falls out loud from his laptop. Both of them glanced in Tess’s direction with unsure expressions on their faces as she made her way to the fridge. She opened the door and stared mindlessly at the contents inside, feeling their gazes digging holes into the back of her head. “Can I help you two with something?” She spat, a little harsher than she meant to.

“No, no, we’re just –”

“Whose head did you rip off in there, sweetheart?” Dean interrupted his brother, causing Tess to flinch at his nickname for her and spin around, slamming the refrigerator door shut.

Tess chose to ignore his question rather than to tear into him again for the second time that day and simply replied with, “Where’d you get that burger?”

“Made it,” Dean replied with his mouth full. “I’ll make you one if you tell me who you were talkin’ to,” he added with a smirk. Tess really did not want to relive the unpleasant conversation that she had just had with her dick of a brother, but she was hungry and far too unmotivated to make anything herself.

“Fine,” Tess sighed, as she sat down across from Dean and next to Sam. “It was my brother.”

“Ah, what’d he do to get that reaction out of ya, sweetheart? We could hear you yelling from in here – I just want to make sure I know what not to do,” Dean winked, as he got up from his seat to take his empty plate to the sink and start making Tess her burger as he’d promised.

“Oh, he called me sweetheart one too many times,” Tess quipped, turning around in her seat so she could shoot Dean a mean glare. She saw Sam chuckle softly in her periphery.

“Don’t take it to heart, Tess. He’s just got a crush,” Sam teased, causing Dean’s cheeks to flare red and Tess to giggle at his embarrassment.

“And you don’t?” Dean snapped back; it was Sam’s turn to blush now.

“Alright, alright,” Tess began, holding one hand out in each brother’s direction, as if they were about to start fist fighting even though Dean was behind the counter and Sam was still sat beside Tess. “I’m flattered, really, but I’ll have you know; it ain’t gonna happen. For either of you,” she said with a smile, looking from one brother to the other. “I have this thing called self-respect.”

“Ouch,” Dean chuckled. “How do you want your burger cooked?”

“Whatever’s easiest.”

“Well, what’s easiest is to give you a chunk of raw meat on a bun.”

Tess rolled her eyes. “Medium-rare, then, I guess. Thank you,” she smiled.

“So… your brother? Did he just call to check in or?” Sam questioned.

“Yeah, uh… last time we talked I told him I was on a hunt, and that was when I was driving here,” Tess began, “so, he called to make sure I was okay. Then I told him the truth, and, well, he can be a bit of a hot head sometimes,” Tess explained.

“I know the feeling,” Sam chuckled, glancing over at Dean, who was shooting him a mean glare.

“You want anything on it? Lettuce, tomatoes?” Dean chimed in, asking Tess further questions about her meal.

“Do you have bacon and cheese?”

Dean smiled. “Sure do.”

“So, your brother – is he a hunter?” Sam asked, clearly wanting to know more about Tess.

“Oh, no. Stays out of the life as much as he can. Unless it’s _my_ life, then he feels the need to put his nose all up in it,” Tess huffed, as she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the edge of the table.

“I’m sure it’s out of concern,” Sam suggested.

“It’s out of a place of psychosis, is what it is,” Tess retorted. “I mean, he literally tracked me without my permission. Then, he threatened to drive up here. Oh, also, he’d like your birthdays and social security numbers, so he can run some background checks on the two of you,” Tess scoffed; hoping Sam and Dean would hear how crazy her brother sounded. “Plus, it’s like, what authority does he have over me? He thinks he can hover over me like this because what, he’s _eight minutes_ older than me? Give me a fucking break,” Tess finished, not even realizing that she had gone on a small rant.

“You’re a twin?” Dean asked, setting down Tess’s dinner in front of her as he sat back down across from her.

“Thank you. Sure am,” she replied, diving into her burger.

“What’s that like?”

“What’s it like having a brother? You’d know the answer to that one, wouldn’t you?” Tess teased, as she covered her mouth with her hand while she talked and chewed at the same time. _Jesus Christ, this is the best burger I’ve ever had_ , she thought to herself.

“No, I mean… can you read each other’s minds?”

Tess raised her eyebrows at Dean in amusement. Was he serious? “Did you just ask me if I have twin telepathy? How old are you again?”

“Oh, whatever! Like I’m the first person who’s asked you that,” Dean retorted.

“The first person since like… fifth grade,” Tess giggled. She looked over at Sam who had his face in his hands and was shaking his head slightly.

“Sorry, do I embarrass you?” Dean snipped as he laid his eyes on his brother.

“Every day, Dean. Every day.”

Tess woke up extra early the next morning, as she had procrastinated packing and now had to lose out on sleep so she could throw some clothes into her duffle. It was around 6:45 and she was a bit irritated with herself that she had not done her packing last night, but it wasn’t her fault. Liam had put her in the worst mood. He was still texting her, telling her to “stop being so petty” and “answer the fucking phone”. Tess had yet to reply. She was waiting for an apology from him for being a psycho-stalker brother; only then would she respond. Petty? Maybe, but she was sick and tired of Liam being so overprotective. Not that he hadn’t always been a bit protective over her, but when her dad died it amplified. The tracking her and asking for her friend’s socials – that wasn’t anything Liam ever cared about doing before their father’s death. Tess opened her suitcase which was still full of clothes; she hadn’t had the time to fully unpack and make herself at home. She was hesitating to do so until she had told Liam what her plan was, which she guessed she sort of did, but she was a little upset by the fact that it had gone so badly. Tess sighed and transferred a few outfits from her suitcase to the now empty duffle bag that she had been living out of, which was her main travel bag. She didn’t have the energy to try and plan outfits out, and she figured since most of her wardrobe was dark colors anyway with a few plain white t-shirts thrown in, the probability of at least one outfit coming together from the randomly selected clothes that she was throwing into her bag was high. Tess brushed her teeth and washed her face before throwing her toiletries into a smaller bag and adding it to the duffle before zipping it up. She changed into her outfit for the day – black leggings, black slip on Vans, and an oversized Led Zeppelin t-shirt that used to be her dads. It was nearly a six-hour drive to Sioux Falls and she wanted to be comfortable. She made her way out of her bedroom, turning off the light and closing the door before making her way to the war room to wait on Sam and Dean. Tess checked her watch which read 7:30. They should be up by now; Sam had wanted to leave by 8:00. Tess rounded the corner into the war room, her duffle on her shoulder and her eyes on the ground. She was either napping in the car or making Dean stop for coffee; she was dead tired and needed to restore her energy somehow.

“Morning,” Sam yawned, startling Tess a little. One would think that after years of hunting Tess wouldn’t be so jumpy, but it was a reaction that she could never seem to shake. The simplest noises scared her, but she could behead a vampire, no problem.

“Morning,” Tess groaned, setting her duffle on the table and leaning against the edge of it. “Why are we leaving so early again?”

Sam chuckled. “It’s not that early. I’m usually awake by now anyway.” Sam stretched out in the chair that he was sitting in, his long legs straight out in front of him and his arms raised behind him, as if he wanted Tess to make no mistake of how tall he really was.

“Yeah, well, I’ve been up since like 6:30,” Tess retorted through a yawn.

“Why?”

“Had to pack.”

“And whose fault is that?” Sam sassed, earning an eye roll from Tess.

“I know, I know.”

“Mornin’,” Dean grumbled as he stumbled into the war room, a duffle similar to Tess’s slung over his shoulder. “You two ready?”

“Ready if you are,” Tess smiled. Dean just groaned in response. Tess had a feeling that he was even less of a morning person than she was.

Sam and Dean sat in the front seat of the Impala, although Sam offered Tess shotgun several times before they left the bunker’s garage, she refused; she liked having the whole back seat to herself. She was so excited to be riding in “Baby”, as Dean had affectionately referred to the ’67 Impala several times, that for the first thirty minutes of the drive, her adrenaline was keeping her from falling asleep on the plush leather backseat. She wished so badly that she could talk to her dad and tell him what she had gone through in the last few days, about what she had found and about who she had met. Tess stared out the car’s window as she nervously picked at her fingernails; thinking of her dad made her think of the memory that had resurfaced. If only her dad were alive so she could ask him who the hell John Winchester was and if that was where his obsession with black ’67 Impalas stemmed from. Tess sighed which pulled her out of her thoughts a little, making her realize that she was having to work extra hard to keep her eyelids open.

“Hey Dean, do you think we could stop somewhere and get coffee?” Tess asked. Dean glanced at her in the rear-view mirror, irritation written on his face. The look reminded her so much of her dad’s. The classic “I’m-not-stopping-unless-this-car-needs-gas” look. “Please,” she added, dragging out the “please” in a sing-song voice.

“Where am I gonna stop for coffee, Tess? We’re in the middle of God damn Kansas,” Dean sighed, motioning to the miles of fields that surrounded the highway that they were definitely speeding down.

“We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. We passed the Nebraska state line like 10 minutes ago,” Tess commented. “Anyway, the maps on my phone say there’s a Starbucks about 10 minutes up the highway.”

“Star-what?” Dean asked gruffly.

“Starbucks… the coffee shop,” Tess said slowly, finding it hard to believe that he had never heard of the place with the amount that he’d traveled around the country. Dean shook his head to signal that he had no earthly idea as to what Tess was going on about. “Seriously? You’ve never had a frappuccino?” After the words came out of her mouth, Tess had never wanted to slap herself more. She sounded just like every sorority girl wannabe that she took a class with when she spent two years at community college. Starbucks wasn’t even Tess’s favorite coffee place, not by a long shot, but she couldn’t deny that frappuccinos were delicious and they sure did wake her up. 

“A what?” Dean asked again, looking over at his brother to see if Sam had any clue as to what Tess was talking about.

Sam just shook his head in disappointment. “Really, Dean? It’s probably the most famous coffee place ever.”

“Well, excuse me for being focused on other things like, oh, I don’t know, saving the world a few too many times? And the two of you expect me to know what a frappushino is…”

“Frappuccino,” Tess corrected. “Anyway, if you just stay on this highway for 7 more miles, it’s the first exit,” she continued, placing her arm over the front seat of the Impala so she could show Dean the map on her phone.

“This is ridiculous,” Dean sighed, as he glanced down at her phone, “but I guess I could use a coffee.”

“You have to get a frappe,” Tess practically commanded him.

“I’m not putting anything in my mouth that I can’t pronounce,” Dean grunted.

“They’re not that good, you’re not missing anything,” Sam chimed in. Tess rolled her eyes.

“Predictable. You would be a coffee snob,” she teased, as she leaned back in her seat.

“No, I just don’t see the point in paying $7 for a cup of frozen milk with some caffeine in it.”

Tess simply shrugged. He had a point. Ten minutes later, the Impala had pulled up to the drive-thru window of the coffee shop. Dean agreed to let Tess order for him, after explaining to her how he liked his coffee. Sam asked for a plain black coffee, and Tess scrunched her face in disgust as she poked her head out of the backseat window.

“Hi, can I get a caramel frappuccino, two plain black coffees, one with sugar, and a java chip frappuccino as well please? All grandes.”

“Sure thing!” An overly-cheerful voice replied. Dean looked over at his brother, as though the voice was the most terrifying thing he’d ever heard as it told Tess the total of the drinks and asked her to pull forward to the next window. Tess paid, despite Sam’s protests, and then she was handed the drinks. “Have a great day!” The barista said, in the same cheerful voice. Dean gave her a weak smile and drove off.

“What in hippy-dippy hell was that?” He asked, taking his coffee from Tess and beginning to imitate the barista, “Hi! The world could be ending but there’s nothing I’d rather be doing at 9 in the morning than serving you my overpriced coffee! Freakin’ tree-huggin’ hippies…”

Tess giggled; he really wasn’t a morning person. “Here, try this,” Tess said, handing him the java chip frappuccino. Dean gave Sam his regular coffee and took the cold drink from Tess’s hand as he looked at it in disgust.

“Hell is this? It looks disgusting.”

“Stop being such a drama queen and try it,” Tess sighed, as she took a sip of her own caramel frappe. She watched Dean closely for his reaction as he took a sip of the chocolatey goodness through his straw.

“And this is a…?”

“Frappuccino,” Tess replied slowly with a smile.

“Right. Well… it’s not bad,” Dean admitted reluctantly as he took another sip.

The rest of the drive went by quickly, mostly spent listening to Dean’s large cassette tape collection followed by an argument between Tess and Dean over who was better: Led Zeppelin or The Rolling Stones.

“You have no right to wear that shirt,” Dean retorted, as Tess explained that she loved Zeppelin, but she just felt like some of the songs were a little bit _too_ long.

“Oh my God, I didn’t say they were bad, they’re in my top three for sure. I just said that I personally prefer the Stones.”

“Careful, Tess. He might explode if you keep talking,” Sam teased, adding something about how Elvis was the best, which both Tess and Dean disregarded. Before she knew it, Dean was pulling into the driveway of a cute little house in a nice little neighborhood, a sheriff’s truck parked in front of it. “Alright, here we are,” Dean sighed, as he put the Impala in park and turned off the ignition. “Let’s hunt down some demons.”


	6. Chapter Six

Dean rang the doorbell as Sam stood beside him, Tess slightly hidden behind the two towering brothers. After waiting about 15 seconds with no answer, Dean tried again.

“Jody! You home? It’s us!” He yelled, a tone of worry taking over his voice. Dean looked over to Sam and nodded, which Sam returned before looking back at Tess and repeating the action. Tess raised her eyebrows and shook her head slightly.

“I don’t know what that little nod means, Sam,” she said irritably. “What’s going on?”

“It means take out your gun. We’re goin’ in,” Dean said, as he began getting ready to launch himself full force at the wooden door in front of him. “JODY! WE’RE COMING IN!” He shouted, before he took a step back so he had enough space to ram the door down. Tess grabbed his shoulder before he could make the move. “What are you doing?” He snapped. Tess rolled her eyes and pointed to the front door’s lock. Tess was blessed with perfect vision. She could see the tiniest things from a mile away, and it really helped her in situations like these. “What? What the hell are you pointing at?”

“The lock. Look,” Tess said as she stepped in front of the brothers and kneeled down in front of the door, her eyes level with the lock. “You have to look closely, but it has small little scratch marks around the key hole. Someone’s picked it. There’s no need for you to exert yourself,” she sighed, as she grabbed the door handle and pressed the top of it down with her thumb, “it’s open,” Tess finished, as she pushed on the front door, which opened wide. Tess stood up quickly and pulled her gun from her holster, letting Sam and Dean in front of her. Dean rolled his eyes at Tess’s annoying observation skills and stepped into the house, armed with his pistol and on high alert. “Jody!?” He yelled into the house, as Sam and Tess followed closely behind him in the same guns-drawn stance. The hunters slowly made their way through the house until they had searched every room; Jody was nowhere to be found. They had reconvened in the living room, Dean and Sam pacing the floor as Tess stood and watched them silently, all three of them thinking about what their next move should be.

“Have you tried callin’ her!?” Dean questioned sternly.

“Yeah, dude. Like three times. Nothing,” Sam replied, running his hand through his brown locks.

“Well, try again!”

“I wouldn’t bother Moose, she’s not going to answer,” an unrecognizable voice came from behind Tess, causing her to jump. She spun around, drawing her gun as she did so, to see a man standing a few feet in front of her in a suit and black trench coat. He had a round face, black hair, and a beard to match. Standing at only an inch or so taller than Tess, his lips curled into a curious smirk as he gave her a once over. Tess tightened her grip on her pistol, moving her finger to the trigger. “Oh, you can shoot me all you like, darling, it won’t hurt me one bit,” the man said with a teasing smile, a Scottish accent deeply ingrained into every word he spoke.

“Tess, get away from him,” Dean ordered, as he took a few steps towards the man like he was about to pounce on him. Tess took a step aside, utterly confused as to what was going on.

“Now, now, Squirrel, let’s keep it in our pants, yeah?” The man remarked with a sly grin, holding his hand out in front of him to stop Dean from coming any closer.

“WHERE IS SHE, CROWLEY?” Dean yelled.

“Oh, I wouldn’t know,” Crowley said nonchalantly, “She called me.”

“What?” Dean snapped.

“Let’s sit down, have a little chit-chat, shall we?” 

“I don’t have anything to say to you, I told you next time I saw you I’d fucking kill you, you son of a bitch,” Dean spat as he began making his way towards the man again. With the flick of the man’s finger, Dean flew through the air and landed with a loud crash as the coffee table collapsed underneath the weight of his fall.

“Hey!” Sam began, as he started charging at the man.

“Woah, woah! Down, boy,” Crowley ordered, as he held his hand up to threaten Sam with the same fate as his brother. “Listen, I’d like to figure out what happened to your beloved sheriff as much as you would. So, can we stop the theatrics for a moment? You okay there, Squirrel?”

“Fuck you,” Dean replied, as he stood up slowly and dusted himself off.

“I love you, too,” Crowley smiled. He then turned his attention to Tess, who had been standing in the corner of the room, watching the events in front of her unfold. “And who might you be?” Crowley inquired, taking a step towards her. By this point in time, Tess had gathered that he was a demon. She clutched her pistol in her hand which was full of demon trapping bullets, so it wasn’t providing her a false sense of security like Crowley had implied earlier. She could very well shoot him and ask questions later.

“Fuck off,” Tess sneered, very much not liking the air of over-confidence and douchebag-ery that the demon gave off.

“Oh, she bites,” Crowley chuckled.

“Tess, ignore him,” Dean said as he made eye contact with her over Crowley’s shoulder.

“Tess? From Teresa, yes?” Crowley asked. Tess stared him down, a cold and unmoving expression on her face. “What a fitting name. Teresa means huntress, you know. The Greek –”

“What are you doing, Crowley?” Dean questioned, causing the demon to turn around.

“Simply trying to lighten the mood, is all.”

“Where the hell is Jody?”

“I’ve told you; I don’t know. She called me. She wanted to know if I was responsible for the…,” Crowley tapped his fingers together as he thought of his next words, “surge in demons.”

“Well, are you?” Dean demanded.

“No. But I bet you can take a wild guess at who is,” the demon smiled, waiting for someone to catch on to what he was implying.

“Abaddon?” Tess whispered.

“Smart girl, Teresa,” Crowley teased. “Yes, that whore is trying to dethrone me. Been searching for her for quite a while, so when your precious sheriff informed me that there was a rise of demons in the area, I figured it had to be her. I’ve been keeping to myself downstairs,” Crowley explained.

“You’re the King of Hell?” Tess croaked, backing away from the demon to stand next to the protection that Sam and Dean offered.

“In the flesh,” he smiled. “So, are you lot going to help me find the bitch or what?”

“We don’t know how to kill her, Crowley,” Dean seethed.

“I do.”

The quartet sat down at Jody’s dining room table which Tess couldn’t help but feel uneasy about. Jody was most-likely with Abaddon somewhere and the longer they waited to make a move, the higher the chances were of a worst-case scenario. However, Tess also understood that there was no winning if they went to fight Abaddon without a plan. She was giving the King of Hell a run for his money; who’s to say that she couldn’t fight off three hunters with her eyes closed?

“What do you know?” Sam asked the demon, as he sat across from him at the table, his fingers intertwined and resting on the wooden surface. He looked like a lawyer who was asking his client some questions.

“Well… obviously Knights of Hell are more resilient to your typical demon-killing instruments, yes?” Crowley asked rhetorically. “As far as I know, you can either cure them, although that didn’t work out in your favor, did it?” Sam rolled his eyes before Crowley continued. “Or… the first blade will do the trick.”

“The hell is that?” Dean barked.

“The very blade that Cain used to kill Abel. How much have you read up on Knights of Hell, Moose?” Crowley asked the younger Winchester. Tess had figured out the demon’s little pet names for the brothers, and she had to admit, they fit them well. There is no other animal Sam would be than a moose, and Dean… Dean was definitely a squirrel.

“Just, uh… well, they were hand-picked by Lucifer, right?”

“That they were. And trained by Cain. Cain built the order of the Knights; he was their commander. Made them do all his dirty work while they followed him around the globe, committing all sorts of atrocities. Then the archangels slaughtered the Knights of Hell… the first blade is the only thing that will kill them,” Crowley explained.

“Wait, you’re serious?” Tess questioned, leaning forward in her seat to take in every word that Crowley was saying. “Cain? Like, _the_ Cain? From the Bible?”

“Is there another Cain that I should be aware of, Bambi?” Tess raised her eyebrows as to say “excuse me?” when she heard the nickname that he had chosen for her. Crowley chuckled. “Yes, _that_ Cain.”

“He’s still alive?” Dean spoke up.

“I would think so.”

“Where?”

“I have no clue. Cain keeps to himself, and I’d like to keep it that way,” Crowley stated.

“We need to get Jody back, Crowley,” Sam began. “We need the blade.”

“Well… I’ve done my part. You three are on your own,” Crowley sighed, as he got up from his chair.

“The hell we are,” Dean seethed. Within in the blink of an eye, Dean had managed to place demon trapping handcuffs on Crowley’s wrists as he had made his way past Dean’s seat at the table. “You’re not goin’ anywhere.”

An hour had passed and Crowley was now tied and handcuffed to a chair that was placed on a Devil’s trap painted on Jody’s garage floor. Tess, Sam, and Dean were in the living room, pacing the floor as they had been before the demon arrived.

“Why is Abaddon even here?” Tess wondered out loud. “I mean, the hell does Sioux Falls have that she wants?”

“Hunters, I would guess,” Sam sighed as he took a seat on the couch.

“There’s more hunters here than just Jody?” Tess questioned.

“Our friend, Bobby, he uh… he used to live here before he passed. Had one of the biggest supernatural collections I’ve ever seen besides the bunker…,” Dean trailed off as a realization came to him. “Son of a bitch, we gotta check Bobby’s! C’mon,” he ordered, as he started walking towards the front door.

“What about Crowley?” Tess asked, remembering the demon who was one room over.

“You two go,” Sam suggested. “I’ll see if I can get anything useful out of him.” With a quick nod, Tess followed Dean out the front door.

The car ride was silent for the most part. Dean seemed to be too pissed off to talk about anything and Tess didn’t want to say anything that would set him off. She watched him as he stared straight ahead, his jaw clenched and his knuckles turning white from the grip he had on the steering wheel.

“You okay?” Tess prompted.

“Fuck, no, I’m not okay,” Dean responded, catching her off guard a little bit. She knew he wasn’t okay, but she was not expecting an honest answer from him. Dean didn’t seem like the type to talk about his feelings.

“We’ll find her,” Tess assured him, not knowing what else to say.

“Yeah? How would you know?” He snipped, earning an eye roll from Tess. So, he was pissed and he was going to take it out on her. _Great._ _I should’ve kept my mouth shut._

“I don’t,” Tess replied simply, staring out the window.

“So, don’t say anything then.”

“Christ. Sorry. Didn’t realize that reassurance was such an insult,” Tess retorted.

“I don’t want any reassurance. I don’t need it. Not from you, and not from anyone else. I’m fine,” Dean said coldly as he readjusted his grip on the steering wheel.

Tess snorted. “Yeah, okay. Whatever.”

“Do you want to be my therapist or somethin’?”

“God, no. I have enough trauma to deal with. I just don’t think that hunting monsters while being pissed off is ever a good idea. Anger doesn’t help you think straight, and we don’t know what the hell we’re about to walk in to,” Tess explained.

Dean let out a frustrated sigh. He knew she was right, although he’d never admit it. He had learned a thing or two about Tess since this hunt began. The first being that she was annoyingly observant. He had to admit that when Tess had noticed that the lock on the door had been picked, he was impressed, although slightly irritated that he hadn’t noticed it first. The second being that she had some quick reflexes. When Crowley had appeared, she was quick to turn around and readjust her grip on her gun; she was ready to shoot if she needed to. She hadn’t lied about being a good hunter, and now Dean was the one who was letting his emotions get to him. How could he not? They had no idea where Jody was and he couldn’t lose her. After Bobby, he wasn’t sure that he could lose anyone again. “Don’t worry about me,” Dean said, his voice much calmer. “Are you okay? You just met the King of Hell.”

“Yeah, and what a fucking dick he is,” Tess sighed. “Did you _hear_ the nickname he gave me?”

Dean chuckled. “What, Bambi?”

“I mean… _come on_! At least Moose and Squirrel make sense… I don’t look like a deer. Plus, Bambi sounds like a stripper’s name.”

“Are you kidding? If you were an animal, you’d definitely be a deer. You got the doe eyes,” Dean teased. “If anything, it’s _my_ nickname that he’s fucked up the worst. I mean, a squirrel? Really?”

“I know we haven’t known each other long, but… you are definitely a squirrel,” Tess giggled.

“Yeah? How?”

“Don’t know, can’t quite put my finger on it, yet. I’ll let you know when I figure it out though,” she smiled. Dean rolled his eyes although a smile remained plastered on his lips.

“Here we are,” he sighed, his voice carrying a little sadness to it. Tess looked at the dilapidated archway that they were passing under labeled “Singer Auto Salvage”. The place looked like it hadn’t been touched in years. Crushed cars and their parts were covering almost every inch of land that wasn’t part of the road leading up to the house, and the patches of land that were visible were covered in dead grass or dead branches that had fallen from the dead trees above. The place had a ghostly feeling to it; one that told Tess that this place once used to be loved and taken care of. She watched Dean as he drove through the maze of cars up to the house with sadness in his eyes. She could tell that he had a lot of memories here, both good and bad, that he hadn’t dealt with yet. She only hoped that being back wouldn’t affect his hunting skills.

“You know where he is, don’t you?” Sam spat, as he sat across from Crowley in the garage. Sam was sitting backwards on one of the dining room chairs that he had brought with him for the demon’s interrogation, his forearms resting on the back of it with one leg on either side.

“Moose, you do not want to get involved with Cain,” Crowley insisted, the sarcasm completely gone from his voice.

“Crowley, you want Abaddon dead as much as we do.”

The demon sighed. “I have been looking for the blade for ages. The closest I came was a demon who said he worked with Cain, knew the location of where the blade might be. Before I could get to said demon, however, a hunter by the name of John Winchester took the opportunity from me,” the demon spat.

“Why the hell didn’t you say so earlier?” Sam asked, as he pulled out his phone from his back pocket.

“What good would it have done?”

Sam gave Crowley a death glare before finding Dean’s contact and pressing the call button.

“You ready?” Tess asked Dean as he put the Impala in park.

“I haven’t been here since…,” Dean said solemnly, staring at the house in front of him. Tess was about to try and offer some comforting words before the ring of Dean’s phone cut through the silence. “What’s up, Sammy?” Dean answered as he put the phone to his ear.

“Check dad’s journal to see if he ever ganked a demon that had any ties to Abaddon,” Sam replied. Crowley raised his eyebrows in question.

“Journal?” He mouthed, his expression turning to one of hope. Sam just motioned for him to shut up and mind his own business for the time being.

“Uh… okay?” Dean replied, a bit confused as to what was going on. “I’m telling you Sam, I’ve read the thing front to back, I don’t remember –”

Dean was interrupted by a soft hit on his bicep from Tess who was trying to work out what was going on. Dean shot her a glare and nestled his phone between his jaw and his shoulder before reaching over to the Impala’s glove box to grab his dad’s journal. “I could’ve gotten it!” Tess remarked, a bit irritated by being left out of the loop.

Dean rolled his eyes at Tess’s reaction as he skimmed through the journal, looking for the name Abaddon. He flipped through the pages quickly, finding absolutely nothing, as expected. He handed the journal back to Tess and motioned for her to put it back in the glove compartment as Sam continued to explain to him what was going on. Tess took the book, opening it herself instead of doing what Dean had asked. This earned her a soft hit on her bicep. “What are you doing?” Dean mouthed, still trying to listen to his brother on the other end of the phone.

“What were you looking for? A fresh pair of eyes never hurts,” Tess said simply, a cold look on her face that told Dean she was not going to back down from this fight.

Dean sighed. “Abaddon. Sam says my dad killed one of her little proteges, back in the day. My dad wrote everything down in there. Her name ain’t in there, though; you can look all you want,” Dean explained. Tess just scoffed and began flipping through the pages. “He say anything else?” Dean asked, his attention turned back to Sam now.

“No. Says he doesn’t know anything else. I believe him,” Sam replied as he was caught in a staring match with the demon in front of him.

“Don’t. He knows something. Ask him why the hell he’s so goddamn hesitant to find Cain. I can imagine he wants the blade too, doesn’t he? He’s hiding something. Get it out of him.”

“My brother thinks you know more,” Sam sighed, as he continued staring at the demon.

“How out-of-character,” Crowley quipped, a sly smile forming on his lips. Sam rolled his eyes.

“You two at Bobby’s yet?” Sam questioned, turning his back on the demon.

“Yeah, we’re sittin’ in front of the house. We’re about to head in; little miss observant over here _insisted_ on going through dad’s journal one more time,” Dean scoffed.

“Well, a fresh set of eyes never hurts,” Sam replied.

“Yeah, yeah, whatev-”

“Found her,” Tess interrupted, the corners of her mouth pulling upward. Man, did she love being right.

“Sam, I’ll call you back after we search the house,” Dean said irritably, as he hung up the phone. “Where?” He snipped, grabbing the book from Tess’s hands. Tess leaned over and pointed to the name in question, written nearly illegibly in tiny handwriting on a crowded margin of a page in the middle of the journal. Dean had to squint and turn the book slightly to make it out but, it was, without a doubt, Abaddon’s name. “Demon working for Abaddon… blah, blah, blah… with Tara’s help…,” Dean read, pausing at the name. “Tara? Who the hell is that?”

“There’s an address at the bottom. Think it’s her?” Tess asked, pointing to the bottom of the page. Dean shot Tess an annoyed look. “What?” She asked. “Mad I’m more observant than you? Hate to break it to you, but… most women are,” Tess shrugged, giving Dean a reassuring clap on the shoulder.

“Who’s the one with the stereotypical sexist comments now?” Dean retorted.

“Hm, only difference is that mine implied that women are far more advanced intellectually than men. Yours implied that we only listen to Taylor Swift,” Tess smiled sarcastically, before looking at the house. Movement. There was movement in the upstairs window. She grabbed Dean’s bicep in attempt to get his attention and pointed up at the second-story window. “There. Someone’s in there. I just saw something,” Tess explained, not taking her eyes off the window.

“The hell are we still doin’ in here, then? Let’s go,” Dean prompted, pulling out of Tess’s grip and hopping out of the driver’s seat. Tess followed suit, walking at Dean’s heels until the two of them reached the front door, guns at the ready. “The door open or can I kick it in this time?” Dean sniped. Tess took a quick look at the lock.

“Go ahead, Rambo.”

Dean rolled his eyes and kicked down the old dilapidated white door with the force of one leg and Tess quickly followed behind him into the house. The two hunters made their way up the stairs and straight to the room where Tess had seen movement only minutes ago. They remained as quiet as they could while they walked down the hallway, the rotting wood creaking beneath their feet. Dean looked to Tess and nodded towards the room at the end of the hallway, signaling their destination. She returned the gesture, signaling that she understood. The two finally reached the door, Dean’s hand resting on the doorknob, listening for any kinds of sounds that might tell him what was waiting for them on the other side. Then he heard it; muffled sobs and then a “fuck you” from a familiar voice. _Jody_. Dean busted through the door, Tess right behind him. The first thing Tess saw was a woman to her left who was tied to a chair in the middle of the room, blood, sweat, and tears mixing together as the liquids dripped down her face. The gag around her neck was soaked in the same fluids, and Tess gathered that she’d probably been sitting there for quite a long time. The second thing was a man who seemed entirely caught off guard by the intrusion, which gave Tess just enough time fire two shots; one aimed at his knee cap and the other at his shoulder. It was enough to trap him with the Devil’s trap bullets, if he was indeed a demon, but if he was human, it wouldn’t be enough to kill him. Tess looked to save people wherever she could, and that included those who were possessed by demons. Dean had already made his way over to the woman, who Tess had figured out was Jody from hearing Dean ask her if she was okay. Tess walked over to the man who was lying on the floor, his eyes black with anger. She smirked as she looked down on him, taking a vial of holy water out of her jacket pocket and pouring some directly on the gun shot wounds. The demon hissed in pain.

` “Who are you working for?” Tess asked coldly.

“Fuck off,” the demon grinned.

“Alright, we can do it the hard way. Dean, knife,” Tess said, as she turned around to face her fellow hunter who had Jody’s arm wrapped around his neck and was helping her stand. Dean used his free hand to take his demon killing knife out of his boot to which Tess rolled her eyes.

“Really? You’re gonna give me attitude right now?” Dean asked, raising his eyebrows at her as he handed her the knife and wrapped his arm around Jody’s waist.

Tess shrugged. “There are better ways to store a knife. You take care of her; I’ll be down in a second.”

Dean nodded and made his way to the doorway, Jody clinging to his side. He stopped at the exit and turned his head. “Tess?”

“Yeah?” She asked, not taking her eyes off the demon in front of her.

“If it’s not giving us any info… kill it.”

“You got it.”

Tess smiled menacingly at the demon as she crouched down in front of him. “Who are you working for?” She repeated.

“Fuck off,” he responded again. Tess dug the knife into the wound on his knee. The demon screamed in pain, and Tess only went deeper.

“Why do you have Jody?” No response. Tess moved the knife to the shoulder wound, repeating the digging action.

“Ah, FUCK! Alright! Alright, please, stop!”

“Answer me!”

“I was ordered to!”

Tess took the knife out of the demon. “Yeah, no fucking shit, dipstick. Ordered by who?”

The demon looked around the room nervously before answering, and Tess needed no other proof to know that he was cooking up a lie in that sick little mind of his. “Crowley,” he whispered, and Tess took the knife to his forearm, cutting a straight line from his elbow to his wrist, causing him to hiss in pain.

“You’re a terrible liar. You’re one of Abaddon’s, aren’t you?” The demon gulped. _So, that’s a yes_. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know. I promise. I swear, I –”

“What’d she want with Jody? Why’d she tell you to bring her here?”

“The other key, she thought she might know where the other key was. She figured it be here.”

_What a lame fucking demon this guy is. Just telling me everything I want to know_. “The key to the Men of Letters bunker?”

“Yes. Yes, she told me to not come back until I have it.”

Tess chuckled. “Oh, dude. That key has been found already. By me. So, you can tell Abaddon that Josie Sands’ granddaughter is coming for her. Your meat suit – he alive?”

“Barely,” the demon smiled, as though he was proud of how beat down the human inside him was.

“I guess we’ll have to see about that,” Tess spat, before she began reciting some words that her father had made her memorize at sixteen. She was young, and it was a long time before she ever had to actually use them, but when she first did need to, she was sure as hell glad she knew them. “Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus,” Tess began, the demon’s eyes – or, his meatsuit’s eyes – growing wide with confusion. He thought Tess was going to kill him. He heard Dean tell her to do it, “omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio,” Tess continued, as the demon inside the innocent man in front of her began to writhe in both pain and protest. Tess prayed that the human inside was still alive; she hoped that she wasn’t sparing this demon’s life for no reason at all, “omnis congregatio et secta diabolica,” the demon was screeching loudly. So loudly, in fact, that Tess hadn’t noticed Dean come into the room. She had almost coaxed the beast out of the body before Dean grabbed the knife from Tess’s hand in one swift motion and plunged it into the meatsuit’s heart. It looked as though the man had lightning go off inside him, seizing a little as a bright light flashed under his skin, before he went still. If the human inside wasn’t already dead, he sure as hell was now.

“What the fuck!?” Tess yelled, glaring at Dean who was standing up from the floor.

“Why the hell were you trying to exorcise him!? I told you to kill him!”

“That man was still alive, Dean!”

“And you know this because the demon told you!? Give me a fucking break,” Dean huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Would you have done that to me? To Jody? To Sam?”

“What?” Dean asked, his expression blank.

“If any of us were possessed, if the demon inside told you that we were still alive, you’d just drive a fucking knife through our hearts, too? You wouldn’t give it a chance?”

“No, that’s different. I know –”

“How the fuck is it different, Dean? He was a person! It’s not his fault he was possessed! What’s your job?” Tess seethed. Dean looked at her in confusion, not understanding how that question was relevant to the talk they were having now. “Your job, as a hunter,” Tess elaborated, “What is it?”

“To hunt things,” Dean replied plainly.

“No. It’s to save people. If that means you gotta let a demon go here and there to save whoever it is they’re possessing, then that’s what you have to do! This man – he was someone’s son. He might have been someone’s brother, someone’s father, someone’s husband. He had the chance to make it back to those people and you just took it from him!” Tess roared in frustration. What Dean had just done; it went against everything her father had ever taught her. His words rang in Tess’s head. _You got to remember, it’s about saving people, then hunting things. Don’t ever get those twisted._

“Tess, why are you believing anything that demon told you? Of course, he’s gonna say his meat suit’s alive; it’ll save his ass!” Dean retorted. He understood where Tess was coming from, but there’s always casualties in war. Especially in a war with hell. It was an unfortunate consequence, but Dean learned a long time ago that you can’t save everyone. Did knowing that ever make hunting any easier? Did it ever ease the pain? No… but Dean was used to pain. He lived in it. He wouldn’t know what happiness was if it hit him square in the face. Everything Dean did, every move he made, every decision, every path… it was all to protect those that he loved. It was all to keep them safe and happy, and if he had to do that at the expense of his own safety, at the expense of his own happiness, then that’s what he’d do. Call it stupid, call it reckless, but on the list of things that Dean Winchester loved, he was at the very bottom. Knowing that made the tough calls much easier to execute. He had already accepted all the bad parts of him – ganking a demon had never made him think twice – so why was it that when Tess stood there looking at him with a mixture of anger, disappointment, and disbelief written all over her face, tears threatening to fall from her eyes, why was it that Dean had felt a tsunami of guilt wash over him for what he had done? Guilt was an emotion he carried with him always, and because of that, he’d gotten used to how it felt. So, when the feeling hit him like he hadn’t felt it in ages, it took him by surprise. Dean could see it in Tess’s eyes; the way that she was trying to understand his actions, but just _couldn’t._ The way that those actions had hurt her. In that moment, he knew she was right. The man could have been saved. But Dean also thought about the demon he had killed, and how that demon could no longer harm anyone again. It was a slippery slope, killing demons, one that Dean was sure he had no issues with until this moment in time.

“Tess, they’ll say anything,” Dean explained, a little gentler this time. He could tell she was still upset, and man, did he hate it.

“You think I don’t know that? I don’t care. If they do turn out to be alive, it’s worth it. It’s always worth the life,” Tess sniffled, trying to keep her emotions under control. She took a deep breath before continuing. “He was one of Abaddon’s, by the way. Bitch wanted the other key to the bunker and figured it’d be here. Told him to take Jody because she figured that Jody would know where it was,” Tess explained coldly. Dean nodded in understanding, furthering the deafening silence between them. “How is Jody?” Tess asked, remembering the state that the woman was in.

“She’ll be alright, she’s uh, she’s in the car,” Dean sighed, looking at the dead body at his feet.

“That’s good. Let’s go, then. Before the bitch shows up here,” Tess said curtly, turning on her heels to make her way out of the room.

“Hey, Tess?”

“What?” Tess snipped, turning around to face Dean.

“You’re not going to try and exorcise Abaddon, are you? You know your grandmother’s –”

“I’m not an idiot, Dean. You cut her apart and put her back together again. My grandmother’s long gone. He,” Tess said, pointing to the man on the floor, “he wasn’t. Now let’s go.”


	7. Chapter Seven

The car ride back to Jody’s was silent, aside from a quick phone call to Sam to let him know they were on the way and Dean asking Tess if Jody was still okay between her moans and groans coming from the back seat. Tess had chosen to sit in the back with the sheriff, mainly to make sure that Jody stayed awake, but also because she didn’t want to be in the same house as Dean, let alone in the same vehicle sitting right next to him. The back seat was about as far away as she could get at the moment. Tess kept asking Jody simple questions to keep her from passing out like she probably would have had someone not been constantly trying to keep her awake, and because of this, Tess had learned quite a bit about the sheriff during the 20-minute car ride – probably even more than she knew about Sam or Dean in the two days that she’d been with them. Jody was raised in Sioux Falls. Her favorite color was blue. She thought donuts were just alright, despite the stereotype. She’d been a cop for a little over 12 years. Even when she was on the edge of going unconscious from blood loss due to the few deep cuts she had on her arms and legs, Tess could still tell that Jody definitely had the “cool aunt” persona that Sam and Dean had described her to have. When they pulled up to Jody’s, Tess helped her out of the Impala, wrapping one of the sheriff’s arms around her neck to help her stand as Tess wrapped her own arm around Jody’s waist. Dean quickly got out of the driver’s seat and came around to Jody’s other side, wrapping her other arm around his neck and his arm around her waist as well. Tess flinched as Dean’s hand brushed against her wrist as he tried to find a place to support Jody’s lower back. She knew exactly why what Dean had done was bothering her so much; and it wasn’t just because she was an empath and Dean had disrespected her decision as a hunter. No, it was because the whole ordeal had brought up some unresolved trauma – trauma that Tess had not dealt with, but instead pushed further down inside her, hoping that it would never have the opportunity to resurface. If only there was therapy available for hunters.

Sam appeared from around the entry way’s corner a few seconds after Dean called into the house to make their presence known. One look at the state of Jody and Sam was taking four huge strides towards her, relieving Tess of her support duty and helping Dean guide the sheriff to the couch. Tess made her way to the straight to the kitchen to grab the sheriff a glass of water.

“Jesus, Jody. What happened?” Sam asked as he sat Jody down on the couch. Not that he was expecting an answer – she didn’t look like she had the ability to put a coherent sentence together.

“We’re gonna need to stitch you up, it looks like. I’ll be back,” Dean said, taking a closer look at the cuts on Jody’s arms and legs. It looked like the demon had used the same technique on Jody that Tess had used on the demon. Dean left out the front door to fetch the medical kit from the Impala. Tess appeared from the kitchen with a glass of water and a few damp paper towels, handing the glass to Jody and taking a seat on the coffee table in front of the sheriff.

“Can I?” Tess asked, holding the paper towel in front of her and nodding towards Jody’s face. Jody took a sip of water and managed a weak smile at Tess; a silent ‘yes’ and ‘thank you’ all wrapped into one. Tess began to wipe the dirt, sweat, and blood off of the sheriff’s face, gently dabbing the paper towel on Jody’s busted lip before grabbing a new one and doing the same with her arms. Dean came back with the medical supplies and sat down next to Jody on the couch, placing the bag on the coffee table next to Tess and pulling out anything he might need for stitches. Tess subtly scooted away from the bag and Dean’s arms rummaging through it almost immediately. “Do you need anything before he starts? Alcohol?” Tess asked, noticing Jody’s face once Dean pulled out a needle and thread. The sheriff downed the glass and took a deep breath before shaking her head and offering Tess a feeble smile.

“Alright, this is gonna sting,” Dean warned, before pouring some alcohol over the gash on Jody’s arm. She hissed and squeezed her eyes shut in pain as Dean quickly got to work on stitching her up. Thankfully, that was the only gash that required stitches; clearly the demon didn’t know how to slice people up properly, so Dean was done in a few minutes and was wrapping Jody’s arm up in no time. Jody looked at him graciously, her eyes sparkling with love and admiration for the man in front of her. By that look alone, Tess could tell that she really did love Sam and Dean like they were her own.

“Hey Jody, if you can’t tell us about what happened yet, that’s okay. Are you hungry? Do you need food first? Sleep?” Sam asked gently, sitting down in the arm chair next to the couch and leaning in, giving Jody his undivided attention. Jody took a deep breath and shook her head.

“There’s not… much to tell,” she croaked.

“That’s okay,” Tess gave her a reassuring smile to which Jody tried to return.

“I called Crowley… after I got off the phone… with you,” Jody managed, as she readjusted herself on the couch and glanced over at Dean. “I thought maybe… he’d know something. About Abaddon. He said he’d come but… never showed.”

“Oh no, he showed. Just a little too late,” Dean sighed. Jody looked at him with confusion. “He got here when we got here. He’s chained up in the garage right now. Long story. You need rest, Jody,” Dean said, offering her a sympathetic look. Jody sighed but nodded; although she had a lot of questions as to why Crowley was being held captive in her garage, she knew he was right. She needed a nap and some food; she was too drained to process anything. “I’ll go get some dinner, and when I get back, we can eat and talk about all of it, okay? What’s your favorite place around here?” Dean asked.

“Anywhere,” Jody smiled. “I’m not… hungry for anything specific… but I could eat,” she explained. Dean gave her an understanding nod before standing up and pulling the keys to the Impala out of his jacket pocket.

“You got it. I’ll be back. Sleep,” he ordered, before heading out the door.

Jody turned to face Tess. “Is he… okay? He seemed kind of… off during the car ride,” she croaked, the concern evident in her tone. “And I saw… the little… scoot you did away from him.”

Tess gave Jody the best fake smile she could muster. “Oh, yeah, I’m sure he’s fine. And I just wanted to give him some space,” she lied, “nothing for you to worry about.”

“Do you want to shower? Before you nap?” Sam suggested. Jody looked down at her blood-stained clothes and gave Sam a weak smile and nod.

“Yeah… yeah, that sounds nice,” she replied, as Sam walked over to her and helped her stand.

“Maybe I should – you know, in case she needs help showering,” Tess butted in, wrapping her arm around Jody’s waist. Sam cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Right, uh, yeah. I’ll check on Crowley, then,” he said with a quick nod before heading down the nearby hallway that lead to the garage.

“I think I’ll be… okay to shower… by myself,” Jody said as Tess followed her nods that were directing her to the sheriff’s bedroom.

“Okay. I’ll be outside the bathroom door if you need anything,” Tess replied, noticing that Jody wasn’t leaning on her nearly as much as she was when she had first helped her out of the Impala, which reassured her about Jody’s ability to shower without her help. Tess led Jody into the bathroom, leaving her to steady herself against the bathroom counter, before double checking to make sure she was okay and backing out of the bathroom after the answer was a reassuring “yes”. Tess closed the door behind her and sat down on the floor right outside of it, listening intently for anything that might suggest a fall.

* * *

“Can I get three number ones with extra bacon, a salad, and a cherry pie please? To go,” Dean asked as he patted his back pocket in search of his wallet, eventually finding it in his jacket.

“Sure thing, sugar. Anything else?” The older waitress who was running the diner’s register asked. She had to have been about 70 or so – red hair and dressed in the classic diner waitress uniform. Dean shook his head and gave her a weak smile.

“Not unless you can give me some girl advice,” he joked, as he handed over his card. The waitress laughed and shook her head.

“We’re complicated, aren’t we? With a pretty face like yours, I bet you’ve probably broken some hearts,” she winked, as she swiped Dean’s card and handed it back to him.

“I never mean to, but… seems to happen anyway,” Dean replied, a solemn smile gracing his lips. The waitress turned around to yell into the kitchen through the small serving window in the wall that separated the front of the diner from the back.

“THREE NUMBER ONES, EXTRA BACON. A SALAD AND A CHEERY PIE. TO GO,” she barked in a way which told Dean that though she may not own the place, she definitely ran it. The waitress turned back around and motioned for Dean to take a seat at the bar while he waited. Only then had he noticed that the diner was empty. He checked his watch; it was 8:45 and the diner closed at 9. Now he was _that_ person.

“Sorry for coming in so late, I didn’t realize the time,” Dean apologized as the waitress started wiping down the counter in front of him.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, honey. With my luck someone will come in right at 8:59 and we’ll have to serve ‘em,” she huffed. “So, what’s troublin’ ya?”

“What?” Dean asked, a bit caught off guard.

“This girl, what’s goin’ on?”

“Oh. Just… do I seem like a dick to you… Marlene?” Dean asked, glancing at her nametag.

“From the look of you? Absolutely,” she smiled, throwing the rag to the side before leaning in to give Dean her undivided attention. “But… from what I can tell, you don’t act like one. I’ve been workin’ this job almost 40 years. Seen a lot of dicks in my day. They’re usually all the same, tall, handsome, charming… but they’d never apologize for comin’ in 15 minutes before closing,” she explained. Dean gave her a soft smile. “Why do you ask? This girl hate you or somethin’?”

“I think she might. And I usually don’t care, y’know, what people think of me. In my line of work… let’s just say I have a lot of enemies. But everything I do seems to piss her off and I don’t know why it’s bothering me so much,” Dean said with a shiver. He was extremely uncomfortable talking about his feelings, but Marlene – he was never going to see her again. Plus, she seemed like she might actually know a thing or two about the topic. “It makes me uneasy, the way that I care about what she thinks.”

Marlene chuckled. “You’re not very bright, are ya?”

“What?”

“How long have you known this girl?” Marlene asked.

“Little over two days,” Dean sighed, running his hands down his face in frustration.

“Three number ones! Extra bacon!” A voice yelled from the kitchen before a brown paper bag appeared in the serving window. Marlene turned around to grab the bag and placed it on the counter beside Dean.

“Two days? You’re screwed, aren’t ya?”

Dean furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve known this girl two days and you’re already lettin’ her affect the way you feel. You’re fallin’ for her, sugar,” Marlene stated with a sweet smile. Dean shook his head. He couldn’t be. He didn’t _want_ to be. Sure, Tess was undeniably hot, and yeah, she was a great hunter, and okay, her taste in music was good… but other than that, she was emotional, she was cocky, and she had an attitude that only made Dean want to push her up against the nearest wall and – never mind what it made Dean want to do. He couldn’t think about her like that. He wasn’t going to let himself think about her like that.

“Well… any advice on how to stop falling for someone then?” Dean chuckled.

“Salad and pie!” The same voice yelled from the kitchen, another brown bag appearing in the window which Marlene grabbed and placed in front of Dean.

“I may be old, but even I’m not _that_ wise, honey,” the waitress smiled sympathetically. Dean grabbed the paper bags and placed a 20-dollar bill on the counter as he got up from his seat. “I didn’t even serve you,” Marlene stated, her voice lined with surprise, as she stuffed the bill into the front pocket of her apron.

“For the advice, then,” Dean smiled, as he walked towards the exit. The bell above the door rang as he pushed it open only to be stopped by the sound of the waitress’s voice.

“Hey, sugar,” she said, and Dean turned around to see her standing behind the register again. “If you want the truth, we can’t choose who we fall for. Our hearts do that for reasons that our brains can’t possibly comprehend. Most times it hurts, but sometimes it’s worth it. Don’t be so foolish to think that your brain can tell your heart what to do. You’ll be miserable if you keep tryin’ to keep yourself from lovin’ people.”

Dean just nodded. “Thanks, Marlene, but… I’ve gotten pretty used to being miserable,” he sighed, shooting her a sympathetic smile before leaving his feelings with her at the diner.

* * *

Dinner was quiet for the most part; after explaining the events of the day to Jody, everyone was too tired to discuss what the next move should be.

“Crowley said he’ll help – he wants Abaddon dead just as much as we do,” Sam stated as he continued trying to stab his salad with his fork.

“Hell, no,” Dean said, mouth full of a bacon and cheese burger. “Why should we trust anything he says?”

“Because it makes sense, Dean. Why wouldn’t he want her dead? She’s tried to kill him on more than one occasion and she’s trying to overthrow him. We can kill him when we’re done with him.”

Dean rolled his eyes. “Fine. Did you get a good look at that address you found?” Dean asked Tess, catching her off guard as she chewed on her burger. He hadn’t said a word to her since the car ride home. She shook her head.

“Address? What address?” Sam asked.

“We found an address in dad’s journal. Turns out Crowley was right; dad did kill one of Abaddon’s little worker bees back in the day. Did it with some girl named Tara. There’s an address at the bottom of the page that the entry’s on, we can check it out tomorrow.”

“Were you planning on telling me this at some point?” Sam questioned, frustration in his tone.

“Oh, gee, sorry Sammy. Been sort of an eventful last few hours!” Dean snipped.

Sam rolled his eyes and looked to Jody, who was practically swallowing her burger whole. “How are you feeling?” He asked.

“Much better,” Jody smiled, seeming like much more herself after a few stitches, a shower, and a nap.

“I don’t want to push you if you’re not ready, but… what happened today? What did they want, why did they take you?” Sam asked. Jody put down her burger.

“The demon who was torturing me kept asking for the key to the bunker. He was convinced that I knew where it was, even though I kept telling him that there was only one key, and that it had already been found. But he kept calling me a liar… kept insisting there was a second key… I thought you guys had the only key?”

“Yeah, so did we until this one showed up,” Dean said, nodding towards Tess. Tess shot him a mean glare before smiling in Jody’s direction, prompting her to go on.

“They figured it’d be at Bobby’s, and I guess they thought I’d know where it was,” Jody sighed.

“I’m so sorry, Jody,” Tess said, once again feeling guilty about her search for the bunker.

“Oh, it’s not your fault, honey. I’m just glad you found it first,” Jody smiled, followed by a yawn. “I think I’m gonna hit the hay, it’s been a long day,” she chuckled, swallowing down the remaining bit of her burger. Jody got up from the table, stretching her limbs before steadying herself on the back of her chair.

“You need help?” Dean asked, quickly getting up from his seat to make sure that Jody was okay.

“No, no, I’m good. Just stood up too quickly,” Jody said with a wave of her hand.

“Okay, well, I’ll walk you halfway. Been meaning to check on the asshole in your garage anyway,” Dean said, earning a nod from Jody as she grabbed onto his bicep to steady herself. The two disappeared around the corner and down the hall after Jody exchanged her goodnights with Tess and Sam. Tess finished her burger quickly and began collecting the ketchup-stained plates around the table while Sam continued to eat his salad in silence. Placing the dishes in the sink, Tess let out a sigh as she turned on the faucet and watched as the warm water ran over them, turning the ketchup into streaks of red, reminding her yet again of the events from earlier today. She grabbed a sponge and began cleaning the now what looked to be blood-stained plates, only wishing that she could wash the blood off her hands. Why couldn’t she have exorcised the demon faster? How could she have let Dean sneak past her like that? She should have heard him come in. She should have been paying attention. If she had, maybe the man wouldn’t be dead. Maybe he’d be home with the family that Tess had imagined him to have.

“I think it’s clean,” Sam’s voice said from behind Tess. It startled her out of her thoughts and she realized that she had been vigorously scrubbing the same plate for the past minute or so. Sam came to stand beside her, placing his plate in the sink and grabbing a kitchen towel that was hanging over the handle of the oven behind him. He put his hand out to take the clean plate from her, which Tess handed over with a weak smile before beginning to scrub the next one. “What happened? With you and Dean?” Sam asked quietly as he dried off the plate.

“What do you mean?” Tess questioned, trying her best to pass her tone off as innocent and confused.

“I’m not stupid. First Jody says he was off in the car, then you do that little scoot away from him when he was looking through the medical bag, then he seemed a little snippy at dinner, and then he made that comment and you just about cut his head off with your glare alone. I may not be as observant as you, but I’m observant,” Sam smiled.

Tess huffed. _Well, if it’s that noticeable, I might as well explain it then_. “He’s fucking impulsive is what happened.”

Sam chuckled. “Yeah, he can be that way. What’d he do?”

Tess handed Sam another plate to dry and got started washing another one. A number of seconds passed before Tess answered. “The demon who was interrogating Jody… he killed it.”

Sam nodded slowly, no doubt trying to figure out why Tess was upset about that. “Well, it was a demon.”

“His vessel was still alive,” Tess said plainly, handing Sam another plate.

“How do you know?”

“Demon told me,” she shrugged, starting on the last dish in the sink.

Sam remained quiet for a moment as he thought about what to say next. “How do you know he was telling the truth?” He asked as he put the dried dishes into the cabinet in front of him. Tess handed him the last plate before turning off the water and wiping her hands on a hand towel hanging near the sink. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned her lower back against the counter, watching as Sam dried off and placed the final plate on top of the stack of others in the cabinet.

“That doesn’t matter, does it? If there’s a chance at saving anyone, we should take it, right? That’s our responsibility as hunters, isn’t it?” Tess retorted, frustration lining her voice. Sam mirrored her stance across from her, except because of his height, his upper thighs were resting on the counter behind him as opposed to his lower back.

Sam nodded, more as if he was pondering her question than agreeing with it, before he responded. “What exactly happened?”

“I was interrogating the demon and Dean told me to kill it if it wasn’t giving us any information. Well, he gave me some… pretty lame fucking demon if you ask me, the way that he just crumbled after I sliced him up a few times… but, anyway, I asked if the man who he was possessing was still alive and he said “barely”. So, I couldn’t kill him. I never do, if their vessel is alive. And Dean was helping Jody to the car so I started to exorcise him. And then out of nowhere the knife’s being taken out of my hand and Dean just,” Tess motioned a stab with her hand instead of finishing her sentence. She didn’t know if she’d be able to get it out without crying from the amount of frustration she was feeling.

“Tess… I’m sorry he did that. He shouldn’t have,” Sam offered a sympathetic smile, not that it helped. Tess stared at the white tile floor beneath her and nodded ever so slightly in response to Sam’s apology. Not that Sam was the one who needed to apologize.

“It could have been me,” Tess muttered under her breath. She didn’t know what had made her say it out loud, but the thought had been circulating in her head since the event happened. She only hoped Sam didn’t hear it, or if he did, that he wouldn’t ask about it. She didn’t want to talk about it. She wanted to be alone. She wanted to swallow her trauma and bury it deep down; she was very good at being a therapist to others, but when it came to her own feelings… she had no interest in bringing them up.

“What?” Sam asked softly, confusion in his tone.

Tess shook her head, still staring at the floor. _Nothing_. “It could have been me,” she repeated. Maybe her subconscious did want her to talk about this repressed memory, considering she kept blurting out the one thing she was trying not to.

“What do you mean?”

Tess took a deep, shaky breath. _Alright, I guess I’m doing this_. “Um,” Tess began, already feeling the urge to burst into tears. _Keep it together_. “A few years ago… a demon possessed me. I was awake the entire time. The things I did – the things _it_ did in _my_ body – I saw everything,” Tess paused to take another shaky breath as her eyes glazed over and she attempted to keep her tears from falling, “I almost – it almost – killed my brother. My dad came home just in time to exorcise it and Liam and I both spent a few days in the hospital. When Dean… when he killed the demon it’s like,” Tess paused again, a sob falling from her lips this time, “h-he didn’t hesitate, Sam. And a-all I could think about was what if I h-had run into him while I was possessed? W-what would have happened t-to me then? I’d be dead. I’d be d-dead just like that m-man is now. I could have saved him! I should h-have saved him!” Tess sobbed into her hands. She had never talked about any of this out loud. Again, it’s not like there are special therapists for hunters or anything, although every hunter could probably benefit from one. Tess continued to sob softly into her hands until she felt strong arms wrap around her. Sam’s scent washed over her – one of warmth, like a fireplace, with a hint of AXE body spray. It was a good smell; a smell that fit Sam. Tess let him hold her as she sobbed into his chest. She felt pathetic, like all the effort she had spent trying to prove herself these past few days was going down the drain with each tear she shed. But Sam didn’t seem to care. He just stood there, hugging her, his hand rubbing her back in gentle circles.

“I’m so sorry, Tess,” he finally said. What else could he say? Dean and him were trained to kill demons; they were taught that hesitation usually ended up in someone getting hurt. Sam had to admit, though… Tess had a very valid point. Their job as hunters was to save people, _then_ hunt things, and it seemed to Sam that him and Dean had forgotten that somewhere along the way.

Dean shook his head before he looked up at the ceiling. _See what I mean, Marlene? I never mean to break their hearts. It just happens_. He glanced around the corner again to see Tess’s tiny figure engulfed in his brother’s tall one. He ignored the uncomfortable seed of jealousy that he was feeling in his chest. _Don’t be so foolish to think that your brain can tell your heart what to do_ , the waitress’s words echoed in his head. Dean took a few quiet steps away from the corner where he had eavesdropped on Tess’s trauma and opened and closed the nearest door to him before clearing his throat and making his way into the kitchen. Tess and Sam were no longer hugging, but instead standing awkwardly close to one another trying to pretend as though Tess didn’t just cry into Sam’s chest for three minutes.

“Hey, so,” Dean began, ignoring the awkwardness in the air as he grabbed a beer out of the fridge, “Crowley’s on board with whatever. I doubled checked the address and it’s in Shreveport, Louisiana. I say we head back to the bunker tomorrow, re-energize, re-pack, and then hit the road. It’s a long drive,” Dean sighed.

“Yeah, that, uh… that sounds good,” Sam nodded, looking to Tess for her opinion.

“Sounds fine, but I’m taking my own car. I’m not sitting in the back with that asshat for 10 hours,” she said, nodding towards the wall behind Dean, which Crowley was on the other side of.

“Understandable,” Dean smiled gently, trying to offer her some kindness, now that he had heard her story. Not that she knew that. Tess only nodded.

“Right. I’m beat. Let’s try and sleep in tomorrow, yeah?” Tess asked, her question directed more towards Sam than Dean. He was the early riser, after all.

“Is 9:30 late enough?” Sam asked, looking from Tess to his brother.

“Let’s shoot for 10:00,” Dean suggested, a wave of exhaustion suddenly taking over him. He was going to need a long night’s sleep.

“10:30. We can leave at 11:00 and get breakfast or lunch or whatever on the way. If anyone wakes me up before 10:30… everyone’s life will be a living hell for the first few hours of the day. And I say this knowing that I’ll be sitting right next to the literal king of hell. Got it?” Tess demanded from both brothers. They nodded, Sam holding back a chuckle. “Great. I’m going to sleep. Goodnight, Sam,” Tess said, before turning on her heels and disappearing around the corner.

Sam sucked in through his teeth before mouthing “ouch” at his brother.

“Shut up,” Dean said irritably, taking a sip of his beer. “You got any clue as to why she’s pissed at me?”

Sam shook his head. “Knowing you, probably a long list of things.”

Dean chuckled. He knew Sam wasn’t going to retell Tess’s trauma; it wasn’t his to tell. It wasn’t Dean’s to listen in on either for that matter, but he couldn’t help what he overheard. Dean sighed and downed the rest of his beer before placing the empty bottle on the counter. “Alright, then. See you in the morning,” he said, before making his way out of the kitchen.

“Night,” Sam replied, staring at the floor as Dean passed him. Had Sam been paying attention to anything other than the millions of thoughts running through his head, the majority of them being about Tess, he might have noticed how Dean’s shoulders slumped and his head hung low as he walked a little slower than usual. He might have noticed the wince in Dean’s face when Tess went out of her way to _not_ say goodnight to him. He might have noticed his brother, if he wasn’t so busy noticing _her._


	8. Chapter Eight

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Sam asked Jody for what seemed like the 50th time.

“I’ll be fine. Donna’s on her way so I’ll be well taken care of,” Jody reassured him, before going in for a hug. Everyone was in Jody’s driveway saying goodbye, with the exception of Crowley, who was staring out of the Impala’s back seat window, a pissed expression on his face.

“Thank you for having me,” Tess smiled, before getting engulfed in one of Jody’s hugs. She gave good hugs. Safe hugs; like a mother would.

“Oh, sweetheart, anytime! Thank you for taking care of me,” Jody beamed, squeezing Tess extra tight. She rubbed Tess’s upper arms as she let go and gave her one more smile before turning to Dean. “You be careful,” she said, her index finger pointing at Dean’s face.

“I’ll try my best. You, too. If I find out from Donna that you’ve been out doing things you’re not supposed to,” Dean began, finishing his sentence by simply raising his eyebrows in a warning way.

“I’ll sit my ass at home, don’t you worry,” she smiled, before pulling Dean into a tight hug. Tess watched how Dean’s face seemed to relax in Jody’s arms; like for a split second, he was at peace. Like for a split second, Tess saw the face of a man who wouldn’t harm a fly. Sam nudged her side before any memories of yesterday could creep back into her mind.

“Do you want me to sit in the back?” He asked, when Tess looked up at him in question.

“What? Oh, no. You need the leg room more than I do. I’ll be fine. I’ve dealt with my fair share of douchebags, Crowley’s just another one on the list, right?” She sighed before giving Sam a weak smile. Sam returned the gesture and opened the passenger’s side door as Dean crawled into the driver’s seat and Tess slid into the back seat next to the demon. The three hunters waved goodbye to Jody as she stood in front of her garage and watched them back out of her driveway. Six hours of sitting right next to the King of Hell and behind someone who made her blood boil. Sounds like a regular good old-fashioned family road trip.

The car ride seemed to pass quicker than Tess had expected; maybe it was because the deafening silence among the four of them was unexpected, yet welcomed. She’d rather listen to Dean’s classic rock collection than listen to Crowley whine for 6 hours and, surprisingly, yet suspiciously, he was very quiet. There was about an hour left of the trip when the demon finally broke the silence.

“I need to use the restroom,” he said, a hint of slyness in his voice.

“No, you don’t, you’re a demon,” Tess sighed, resting her head on the Impala’s back window. She didn’t even look at Crowley; she was irritated that he had said anything at all. She was enjoying the silence.

“And what would you know about being a demon?” Crowley snipped. Sam looked back at Tess to make sure that the comment hadn’t triggered a bad reaction in her as Dean tightened his grip on the wheel to try and keep his composure. Neither Tess nor Sam knew that he had overheard their conversation last night.

“More than you’d think, dickbag,” Tess retorted, shooting the demon a mean glare. Both of the brothers tried to bite back smiles in response to Tess’s feistiness.

“This is ridiculous. I could save us monumental amounts of time if you just let me pop in and see what this Tara woman knows. I’ll come back, you have my word,” Crowley stated, as though he was sure that he was going to get what he wanted.

“Shut up,” Dean groaned, already annoyed by the demon’s interruption. Crowley listened, surprisingly, and before Tess knew it, they were pulling into the bunker’s garage.

Tess was throwing her dirtied clothes from Jody’s into the bunker’s stone-age washing machine. It was dark by the time they got back to the bunker; around 7:00 PM or so. Per Dean’s orders, they were leaving tomorrow morning at 5:00 AM. Tess groaned as she remembered that she had another early morning in front of her; she hadn’t been on back-to-back hunting trips since before her dad died – and even then, she had a rough time with them. Tess practically slammed the washer door closed; she was absolutely exhausted from the entire trip, and the fact that her mind was reeling with thoughts of Dean was only making her even more irritable. She shook her head, clearing her mind before looking at the buttons on the washer, realizing that she had absolutely no clue how to work the damn thing. It looked like the first version of a washer ever made. Tess threw her head back with a frustrated sigh, and began to head out the door to find Sam so he could teach her how to use the thing. She jumped as she turned the doorway’s corner, almost colliding face-first into Dean’s chest.

“Shit, sorry,” she muttered, refusing to look at him. Dean let out a huff and grabbed her by her bicep, pulling her back into the laundry room and closing the door behind him. “HEY!” Tess yelled, trying to pry his vice grip off of her upper arm.

“Stop,” Dean commanded. He wasn’t yelling, but he wasn’t being nice about it either. Nonetheless, Tess stopped struggling and Dean let go of her arm.

“What the hell do you want, Dean?” She seethed, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the washer.

“I heard you, last night. With Sam,” Dean confessed, running his hand through his hair nervously.

“That wasn’t for you to –”

“I know, I know. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I eavesdropped and I’m sorry that I took matters into my own hands. I shouldn’t have done that,” Dean apologized. Tess raised her eyebrows at him, as though she was considering his apology. “I didn’t know that that had happened to you.”

“Yeah, I know,” was all Tess could say.

“I just – can you maybe stop being so mad at me? I won’t do it again, You have my word.”

“Dean, I… you just… there was no hesitation. No thought for the man left inside,” Tess explained, though her voice was much gentler now.

“Tess, you gotta understand… it’s how Sammy and I –”

“We raised. Yeah, I know. And I don’t blame you for that. I’m just mad that you didn’t really give me a choice. I’m a good hunter, you know. I –”

“Tess, you’re a fuckin’ fantastic hunter,” Dean interrupted, “I never doubted that. Well, not after I saw you shoot, anyway,” he chuckled nervously, earning a smile from Tess, though she was looking at the floor so he didn’t see it. “Again, I shouldn’t have done that and if I could take it back, I would.”

Tess nodded. She was tired of being angry with him, and she was tired of the awkwardness between them. “Okay,” she smiled softly, finally meeting his eyes. “I forgive you or whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes playfully.

“Thank fuck. So we’re good?” Dean asked as a sigh of relief fell from his lips.

Tess nodded. “Only if you show me how to work this damn washer,” she smiled.

Dean chuckled. “Step aside sweetheart, the thing’s a bitch to turn on.”

And for some reason, for the first time since knowing him, Tess wasn’t bothered at all by Dean calling her “sweetheart”.

“You still want to drive yourself?” Sam asked, as he threw a duffle into the back seat of the Impala.

“Excuse you! I’m in here!” Crowley snapped, his voice thick with irritation.

Sam placed a hand on the hood of the car and ducked his head down so he could peer into the window to say, “I know and I don’t care”, before turning his attention back to Tess.

“Yeah, I think I’d rather cover myself in papercuts and soak in a bath of lemon juice before sitting in the backseat with him for ten hours,” Tess said with a soft smile.

“I can hear you!” Crowley yelled from the backseat.

“I know and I don’t care!” Tess replied.

Sam chuckled. “You sure? I can always hitch a ride with you if you don’t want to ride alone,” he offered.

“No, it’s okay. I need to call my brother anyway. I haven’t talked to him since, well… you heard the tone of the last call,” Tess sighed, dreading the fact that she’d have to call her brother back. It had been a little over 24 hours, more than enough time for the both of them to have cooled off by now, but regardless, their previous conversation didn’t end on a good note and Tess knew that it wasn’t quite over.

“You still driving by yourself, Tess?” Dean asked, finally appearing in the bunker’s garage with a duffle thrown over his shoulder. Tess nodded.

“Yeah, I gotta call my brother anyway.”

“Glad to see you two are speaking,” Sam chuckled. Although, not-so deep down, he was kind of enjoying being Tess’s favorite.

“Can we please, _go_!?” Came Crowley’s voice from the backseat.

Dean groaned as he remembered that he had to make this drive with the King of Hell in the backseat. “Does he have to come?” He whined, like a toddler asking if they really _had_ to take a nap.

“He might be useful. Just ignore him,” Sam sighed. “Alright,” he added after a beat, clapping his hands together as he did so, “we ready then?”. Dean opened the Impala’s trunk in response to Sam’s question and threw his duffle bag in before making his way over to the driver’s side door. “I’ll take that as a yes. Just follow behind us,” Sam smiled at Tess, who returned the expression and added a quick nod before making her way to her beloved little yellow car.

“So…,” Sam began after an hour or so of grueling silence aside from Crowley’s intermittent complaining, “how’d you two finally make up?” Sam didn’t know why he was asking; he knew Dean would suspect something. Dean’s relationships with girls weren’t something Sam usually asked questions about. The older Winchester raised his eyebrow in suspicion as he glanced over at his brother.

“I told her I overheard the two of you the other night at Jody’s and apologized for ganking that demon,” Dean sighed.

“You overheard us?”

“Unfortunately. You two are getting… pretty close, huh?” Dean inquired. He only wanted to know the answer if the answer was “no, she just needed some comfort and I happened to be there”, but Dean knew better. He knew that wasn’t going to be the answer.

Sam huffed out a small smile. “I mean, I don’t know. Sure, I mean, she’s gorgeous… and yeah, she’s a great hunter, but other than that I don’t know her all that well. I mean, besides what she told me about the whole demon thing. Like, I don’t know her birthday,” _It’s in November_ , Dean thought to himself, as Sam continued, “or what type of music she likes,” _It’s not Taylor Swift_ , “or what her favorite color is,” _OK, I’ll admit, I don’t know that one either. But I feel like it’d be black._ “So, it’s not like we’re best friends or anything,” Sam finished.

“No, but you want to be,” Dean prompted.

“I wouldn’t mind it,” Sam smiled as he shrugged, “but you know how it is. Hunting and dating –”

“I didn’t know you had to date to be best friends,” Dean interrupted. Why was he doing this to himself? He knew Sam had a crush, but he’d be lying if he didn’t admit that he had one, too. Dean glanced over at his brother whose cheeks were turning pink. “You like her,” Dean stated.

“I don’t know her, Dean,” Sam retorted.

“You don’t know Celine Dion, either, but you like her.”

Sam’s cheeks grew even more crimson. “Shut up.”

Dean chuckled as he did what he did best: avoid conversations he didn’t want to have by ending them before they started with a little Dean humor. At least now he wouldn’t have to feel his heart rate increase every time he heard Sam talk about her.

_Ring. Ring. Ring_. Tess had been following closely behind the Impala for the last four hours, making sure that she wasn’t leaving a big enough gap to the point where some asshole in a pickup could cut in front of her and block her view. _Ring. Ring. Ring._ It was her third time trying to get ahold of her brother in the last hour; Tess knew he usually woke up around 8AM to work out, so his failure to pick up his damn phone was driving her up the wall. She readjusted her grip on her steering wheel and pressed the call button on her phone again. _Ring. Ring. Ring._ Tess bit her lip nervously. _He probably just overslept. Give it an hour_ , she thought to herself, trying to keep her mind from jumping to where it usually did: the worst-case scenario. As she tried occupy her brain with other thoughts to fill the hour before her next attempt at calling Liam, the Winchester brothers slowly made their way into her mind. She’d only known them all of five days but she was confident that she’d had at least one of them pretty much figured out; that brother being Dean. He was easy; he had decades of unresolved trauma beneath his surface and he used hunting to cope with the anger of it all. It explained why he was impulsive and why he could be a straight up dick sometimes. But, as much as he tried to hide it with layers of tough-guy douche-baggery, at his core, Dean was sensitive and caring. Tess could tell; he didn’t do a very good job at hiding it around her. Sam was a different story. He very obviously had a crush; one which Tess was flattered by but she didn’t think she’d ever fully reciprocate. Sure, Sam was attractive – hell, both of them were – but Tess had to keep herself out of the dating game. It never turned out well for her anyway, and besides, if she did do something with either brother and it went awry… it was bye-bye bunker sweet bunker for her; and she wasn’t going to risk that. But, besides that, Sam was hard to read. He did a good job on his surface-level appearance; whatever trauma Sam had – if any – was well hidden.

Another hour had passed on the quiet, yet peaceful, journey. Tess quite enjoyed having some time to herself without the trio in front of her. Tess was pretty social, but the non-stop excitement that had ensued since she arrived at the bunker really had her relishing in the alone time that she had just had with her thoughts. She sighed, knowing that her time had come to an end, as she had to try and call Liam again. Tess silently mumbled a prayer while the phone rang; if Liam didn’t answer this time, something had to be wrong. All Tess could focus on was the ringing of her phone blaring through her car’s speakers, until there was a little _click_ and some static. Tess let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh my God, thank God,” Tess breathed, before adding, “Why the fuck haven’t you been answering your phone!?”

“Aw, she was worried about you,” Tess heard an unrecognizable woman’s voice say on the other end of the line. Tess suddenly became very aware of everything around her; the sound of her car’s tires on the road, the feel of the air conditioning in her skin, the way that her heart started beating so fast that she was scared she might have a heart attack right then and there. She was on high alert; something was wrong. To start, Liam was gay, so, there was absolutely no reason for an unrecognizable woman to be answering his phone like that. Unless…

“Abaddon?” Tess croaked. _Please let me be wrong, just this once, please prove me wrong._

“Oh, c’mon now, show a little respect to your grandmother,” the voice teased.

Tess gripped on to her steering wheel tightly as she tried to focus the remaining bit of her concentration on driving. “I swear to God, if you touch him –”

Abaddon interrupted with a shrill laugh. “He’s fine, Teresa, don’t you worry. And he’ll stay fine if you just do one little thing for me… bring me the key to the bunker. I know you have it,” she said in a sing-song voice.

“I – I don’t have it anymore,” Tess stuttered. Technically, it wasn’t a lie. The key wasn’t physically with her.

“Don’t lie to me, girl,” Abaddon snapped. “I know everything. I know that you’ve been hunting with the Winchesters and I know that you have that little rat Crowley with you and I know that you’re looking for the first blade.”

“How do you –”

“Let’s just say that Crowley’s little messages aren’t as private as he may think. Bring me the key, bring me the blade, and your brother lives. You have 48 hours,” Abaddon said, a smile evident in her voice.

“Wait!” Tess exclaimed, sensing that the phone call was about to end. “My brother – let me talk to him. I’ll do what you want but I need to know he’s alive.”

Abaddon let out an amused huff; as if she was expecting the demand, as if it was something that she herself would have done. “You have 10 seconds.”

“Liam?” Tess questioned in a panicked tone.

“Tess, listen to me, don’t worry about me, alright. I can handle myself, whatever she wants, don’t –”

“Alright, that’s enough. 48 hours. Key. Blade. Or I’ll slice up your brother. Your call,” Abaddon smiled, before hanging up the phone. Tess immediately called Dean, who answered instantly.

“Need gas?” He asked, assuming that’d be the only reason that she would call.

“Pull over,” Tess demanded. “Now.”

“Is everything oka –”

“God dammit, Dean! PULL OVER NOW!”

The Impala skidded to a stop on the side of the empty highway that they had been driving on for the last few hours. Tess pulled up behind it, slamming her door shut behind her as she got out of her car. She was already opening the Impala’s back door before Dean could even put the car fully in park. Tess pulled Crowley out of the backseat, ignoring his cries of protest. Tess pinned him against the car, her forearm pressed into his chest while she grabbed onto his jacket. With her free hand, she pulled her gun from her holster and held it against his temple.

“Woah, hey!” Tess heard Sam exclaim, as he got out of the car after Dean, but she ignored it.

“WHO HAVE YOU BEEN TALKING TO?” Tess demanded, pressing the barrel of her gun further into the Crowley’s temple.

“I don’t –”

“I SWEAR TO GOD, YOU BETTER ANSWER ME YOU SON OF A BITCH. HOW DOES SHE KNOW?”

“How does who know what?” Crowley questioned; his eyebrows furrowed in genuine confusion.

“ABADDON!”

“Wait, what?” Tess heard Dean ask. His voice seemed so far away; it was muffled by the blood that Tess could hear pumping through her body.

“You listen here,” Tess began, readjusting her grip on Crowley’s coat before bringing her face closer to his, “I don’t know who you’ve been communicating with, or how, but she knows. She knows that I have the key, she knows that I’m with Sam and Dean, she knows that we have you, and she knows we’re going after the blade. And she has my fucking _brother_. So, you better spill it right the fuck now before I bash your fucking skull in.”

Crowley averted Tess’s gaze as a look of disbelief fell upon his face. “They betrayed me,” he whispered, his voice lined with shock.

“Who did?”

“My demons. I’ve been communicating with them the whole time… asking them to come get me… I should have known after no one showed up the first time around…,” Crowley trailed off. Tess huffed and took a few steps back, dragging Crowley with her and pushing him down to the ground. She hovered over him for a second before taking her aim. _BANG._ “AGH, WHAT’D YOU DO THAT FOR?” Crowley yelped, as he clutched his bicep in pain. These Devil’s trap bullets were no joke. Plus, Tess had soaked them in holy water for good measure.

“Because you’re a fucking idiot,” Tess said through gritted teeth. She started to take her aim again, but Dean suddenly appeared in her field of vision, his hands held out in front of him in surrender.

“Tess?” He asked cautiously, as he slowly came to stand in between her and the demon. Tess watched as Sam helped Crowley up off the ground. “Tess, what happened?”

“I called my brother and Abaddon answered. She wants the key and she wants the blade. We have 48 hours,” Tess said robotically, as she continued to stare Crowley down over Dean’s shoulder.

“Tess, we can’t –”

“We can and we will, Dean. She’s got my _brother_! You look me in the eye right now and tell me you wouldn’t do it for Sam.”

Dean sighed. “Tess, we don’t even know if this Tara woman is still alive. We don’t even know if she knows anything about the blade. 48 hours isn’t enough time to –”

“Well, make it enough time! Get in the car, and fucking _drive_! If we don’t have the blade in 24 hours, we can start thinking of a plan B. But right now… this is the only guarantee that I get my brother back alive. C’mon. We’re wasting daylight,” Tess seethed, as she pushed past Dean and made her way back to her car, “and I’m leading this time!” She added over her shoulder, as she got in her Volkswagen and slammed the door shut.


End file.
